Obese women losing weight during pregnancy good for baby

London, May 15: Are you pregnant and very obese? If so, shedding those extra kilos may ensure good health for your baby, claims a new study challenging notions on weight during pregnancy. The study revealed that the optimal weight gain for women would give them a balanced risk of having a very small or very large baby. There is a strong link between the weight of the mother and the baby: very underweight mothers tend to have smaller babies — called small for gestational age (SGA) babies — and morbidly obese mothers tend to have more large for gestational age (LGA) babies. These babies are at higher risk of conditions like heart attacks, hypertension, obesity and diabetes as adults than babies born at normal weight. According to the study, published in the journal Heliyon, although the current recommendations are correct for women with a normal BMI, they are not correct for underweight or obese women. IANS