Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Jun;91(6):1745-51.
doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.29128. Epub 2010 Apr 7.

Weight gain in pregnancy and childhood body composition: findings from the Southampton Women's Survey

Sarah R Crozier  1 , Hazel M Inskip, Keith M Godfrey, Cyrus Cooper, Nicolas C Harvey, Zoë A Cole, Siân M Robinson; Southampton Women's Survey Study Group
Affiliations

Weight gain in pregnancy and childhood body composition: findings from the Southampton Women's Survey

Sarah R Crozier et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Jun.

Abstract

Background: Intrauterine life may be a critical period for the programming of later obesity, but there is conflicting evidence about whether pregnancy weight gain is an important determinant of offspring adiposity.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the relation of pregnancy weight gain with neonatal and childhood body composition.

Design: The participants (n = 948) were children born to women in the Southampton Women's Survey who had dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry measurements of body composition at birth, 4 y, or 6 y. Pregnancy weight gain was derived from the mothers' measured weights before pregnancy and at 34 wk gestation and analyzed by using 2009 Institute of Medicine categories (inadequate, adequate, or excessive) and as a continuous measure.

Results: Almost one-half (49%) of the children were born to women who gained excessive weight in pregnancy. In comparison with children born to women with adequate weight gain, they had a greater fat mass in the neonatal period (SD: 0.17; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.32; P = 0.03), at 4 y (SD: 0.17; 95% CI: 0.00, 0.34; P = 0.05), and at 6 y (SD: 0.30; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.49; P = 0.002). Greater pregnancy weight gain, as a continuous measure, was associated with greater neonatal fat mass (SD: 0.10 per 5-kg weight gain; 95% CI: 0.04, 0.15; P = 0.0004) and was weakly associated with fat mass at 6 y (SD: 0.07 per 5-kg weight gain; 95% CI: 0.00, 0.14; P = 0.05) but not at 4 y (SD: 0.02 per 5-kg weight gain; 95% CI: -0.04, 0.08; P = 0.55).

Conclusion: Appropriate pregnancy weight gain, as defined by 2009 Institute of Medicine recommendations, is linked to lower levels of adiposity in the offspring.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Mean (95% CI) fat mass at birth, 4 years and at 6 years by Institute of Medicine pregnancy weight gain categories
1adjusted for sex, gestation, age at measurement, age squared, length, and maternal smoking in pregnancy, age, height, parity and educational attainment 2adjusted for sex, age at measurement childhood height, and maternal smoking in pregnancy, age, height, parity, educational attainment and breastfeeding duration
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Haslam D, Sattar N, Lean M. Obesity-time to wake up. Br Med J. 2006;333:640–2. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dietz WH. Overweight in childhood and adolescence. N Engl J Med. 2009;350:855–7. - PubMed
    1. Lobstein T, Baur L, Uauy R. Obesity in children and young people: a crisis in public health. Obes Rev. 2004;5(suppl 1):4–85. - PubMed
    1. Baird J, Fisher D, Lucas P, Kleijnen J, Roberts H, Law C. Being big or growing fast: systematic review of size and growth in infancy and later obesity. Br Med J. 2005;331:929. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Whitaker RC, Wright JA, Pepe MS, Seidel KD, Dietz WH. Predicting obesity in young adulthood from childhood and parental obesity. N Engl J Med. 1997;337:869–73. - PubMed

Publication types