Excessive Weight Gain in Pregnancy Leads to Higher Birth Weight

High birth weight predicts childhood obesity and might be associated with obesity-related morbidity later in life. In previous studies that showed an association between maternal weight gain during pregnancy and birth weight, investigators have not controlled for potential genetic and environmental confounders. To overcome such confounding, U.S. researchers used a database that included 513,000 women — each with more than one singleton birth — to calculate differences in weight gain and in birth weight between adjacent pregnancies for each mother.

Birth weight was associated significantly with maternal weight gain; every additional 1 kg in maternal weight gain was associated with a 7.35 g increase in birth weight. Differences in birth weight…