Pregnancy Weight Gain Guidelines

Finally, revised pregnancy weight gain guidelines!

The Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council today released a report recommending new guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy. The report updates guidelines that were last set in 1990 and takes into account changing US demographics, particularly the increase in the numbers of women of childbearing age who are overweight and obese.

The new guidelines are available on the Institute of Medicine's Web site.

"The earlier guidelines recommended weight gain that would be optimal for the baby. These new guidelines take into account the well-being of the mother as well. This is a fundamental and important change," Kathleen M. Rasmussen, ScD, professor of nutrition at Cornell University and chair of the guidelines committee, said at a press briefing where the new recommendations were announced.

The 2009 guidelines also differ from those issued 2 decades ago in 2 other ways. They are based on World Health Organization cutoff points for body mass index (BMI) categories, unlike the earlier guidelines, which were based on weight categories taken from the Metropolitan Life Insurance tables. They also recommend a more narrow range of weight gain for obese women.

The recommended weight gain for each category of prepregnancy BMI is as follows:

• Underweight (< 18.5 kg/m2); total weight gain range: 28 to 40 pounds

• Normal weight (18.5 - 24.9 kg/m2); total weight gain range: 25 to 35 pounds

• Overweight (25.0 - 29.9 kg/m2); total weight gain range: 15 to 25 pounds

• Obese (≥ 30.0 kg/m2); total weight gain range: 11 to 20 pounds