Gestational weight gain below recommendations and adverse maternal and child health outcomes for pregnancies with overweight or obesity: a United States cohort study.

Background: The current Institute of Medicine (IOM) pregnancy weight gain guidelines were developed using the best available evidence but were limited by substantial knowledge gaps. Some have raised concern that the guidelines for individuals affected by overweight or obesity are too high and contribute to short- and long-term complications for the mother and child.

Objectives: To determine the association between pregnancy weight gain below the lower limit of the current IOM recommendations and risk of 10 adverse maternal and child health outcomes among individuals with overweight and obesity.

Safety of low weight gain or weight loss in pregnancies with class 1, 2, and 3 obesity: a population-based cohort study.

Background: There are concerns that current gestational weight gain recommendations for women with obesity are too high and that guidelines should differ on the basis of severity of obesity. In this study we investigated the safety of gestational weight gain below current recommendations or weight loss in pregnancies with obesity, and evaluated whether separate guidelines are needed for different obesity classes.

Methods: In this population-based cohort study, we used electronic medical records from the Stockholm-Gotland Perinatal Cohort study to identify pregnancies with obesity (early pregnancy BMI before 14 weeks' gestation ≥30 kg/m) among singleton pregnancies that delivered between Jan 1, 2008, and Dec 31, 2015.