Here's how weight-management during pregnancy can affect your child

Women rejoice, a new study has found that gaining weight during pregnancy has no relevant connection in benefiting a child's bone mass. Lead author from the Universidade do Porto in Portugal, Teresa Monjardino says that this applies to both normally weighing women and overweight women. “Until recently, it was a widely held scientific belief that any weight gain from the mother during pregnancy would have a beneficial effect on children’s bone mass,” said Monjardino.



While it is a known fact that putting on weight during pregnancy can reduce child cardiometabolic risks such as diabetes and heart disease, it has also been found that pregnancy weight management could adversely affect child bone health. After some research, it was found that in normal and slightly underweight women, weight gain helped the child's bone mass increase by a bit, but in overweight women, it showed no difference at all.



“Our study results corroborate that there is no benefit in gaining weight above the US Institute of Medicine recommendations for pregnancy weight gain for children’s bone mass, in both normal and overweight women prior to pregnancy,” added Monjardino. Stay tuned for more updates.