{"id":2830,"date":"2019-11-01T23:50:02","date_gmt":"2019-11-02T03:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=2830"},"modified":"2022-04-14T16:41:59","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T20:41:59","slug":"getting-pregnant-while-overweight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/getting-pregnant-while-overweight\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Pregnant While Overweight: The Risks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If you&#8217;re overweight, what are the issues with getting pregnant? How can it cause issues with complications in pregnancy, and in your baby&#8217;s future outcome? Learn more here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s start with a definition of overweight: 70% of the US is overweight (BMI &gt; 25) and 35% are obese (BMI &gt; 30).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Obese women are less likely to get pregnant and more likely to have pregnancy complications and infant complications. Here are a few graphs illustrating the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first graph shows the chances of complications, including pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, preterm delivery, labor induction, and C-section. Chances comparing normal weight vs obese mothers are shown:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/MYd2TlyFecEkYvLNYuTHhp2KyhBAtKLnlO-d_mHhsgTblvWKxAdMjeRE1F6kY8VyAg1wNPbzgooHN3mnfxLHd7wwn102HKwpfvZ83sGIYcE5zmgB2Z2zJ0hlygY15AoSTNlsQUUb\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As you can see, there&#8217;s a big difference in the chances of complications between women of normal weight and obese women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What happens when the baby is born? Here&#8217;s another chart, showing outcomes of babies to women of normal weight and obese women:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/Z5h2-ux86OIRZ5SBu3HJkSk9OV92thsVMO0-2VGR1pXTbvvmajkIJ6dXfpfjPpETfu5LrfkWfcVLXbhf-07Q1XRIWI82IhbP2-zu6El0KB0vL1qB0wQqaqn5_rhfZx2-Z_W9TpE1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shoulder dystocia is an emergency occurring during labor in which the baby\u2019s shoulder gets stuck and can\u2019t easily come out behind the pubic bone.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Babies born to obese women have much higher risks of shoulder dystocia, being large for gestational age, and for a poor APGAR score on birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overweight women who are neither obese nor of normal weight have risk profiles somewhere in between.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re overweight, what are the issues with getting pregnant? How can it cause issues with complications in pregnancy, and in your baby&#8217;s future outcome? Learn more here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[56],"class_list":["post-2830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-expecting-better","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Getting Pregnant While Overweight: The Risks - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you&#039;re overweight, what are the problems that can happen when you get pregnant? 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