Should I lose weight before getting pregnant?

It may be an old wives' tale, but I am about 80 pounds over weight and my parents insist that I need to lose weight before my husband and I attempt to have a baby. They claim that overweight women have more complications during labor, and have a higher chance of having an unhealthy baby. Is there any truth to this?

I can't tell you from personal expericeince but I know I few over weight people, like two that had babies that where perfectly fine and had no health problems. I think that health problems only apply to people who are obese. I found this in an article from the new york times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/29/health/pers onal-health-beginning-a-pregnancy-already-ove rweight.html?sec=health&pagewanted=2

"These are some of the risks: If you have a BMI of more than 30.

Chronic hypertension. Hypertension is associated with a greater than average risk of suffering a stroke and developing heart disease. Being overweight increases the risk of developing high blood pressure before pregnancy, a problem that raises the risks for two pregnancy complications, preeclampsia and intrauterine growth retardation.

Gestational hypertension. This is high blood pressure that develops in pregnancy. While it can sometimes occur in women of normal weight, the risk is higher in the obese

Preeclampsia. This is a very dangerous complication that combines high blood pressure, protein in urine and swelling. Untreated, it can cause the death of the mother and unborn baby. The only cure after preeclampsia develops is delivery of the baby, even if that means the baby will be very premature, a problem that carries its own risk of impaired development and failure to survive.

Diabetes. Like hypertension, Type 2 diabetes is more common in overweight people. It increases the risk of heart attacks and circulatory problems that could mean poor blood supply to the fetus.

Gestational diabetes. This is diabetes that develops during pregnancy and, like gestational hypertension, it can happen even in normal-weight women. But the likelihood is much higher for overweight or obese women when they become pregnant.

Thromboembolic disease. These are blood clots. They typically start in the legs and can break loose and travel to the lungs, where they can quickly cause a fatal pulmonary embolism.

In addition, women who are obese have a greater than average chance of requiring induction of labor, laboring longer and developing infections in labor, as well as a nearly threefold chance of requiring Caesarean deliveries."

Fat women have been having babies as long as there have BEEN women... the bigger you are, the less likely you are to get pregnant because it can affect your fertility. But if you DO get pregnant the risks are highly overrated. It's not like the kid is going to be born with two heads because you weighed 200lbs. If you're relatively young and you've got lots of time left on your biological clock, it's always better to be healthy and active before conceiving, so a weightloss and exercise routine is a great thing to do and it really won't hurt you to wait a year before you try for a baby. And it won't hurt you to continue to lose weight in a healthy way while you are trying if you want to do them both at the same time. But if you get pregnant then you need to quit trying to lose weight and concentrate on maintaining. It's really up to you...

I agree 100% with kajikit. Overweight women have babies every day. There are more complications but the risks get sensationalized (like everything else these days!). I did watch a show on TLC that followed two pregnant, morbidly obese women through their deliveries. One of them had to have a natural birth because they couldn't get the catheter for the epidural in. I'm sure this doesn't happen often and I'm certainly not trying to scare anyone but there are more risks than just health complications.

Under close supervision from a medical team (OB, dietician, nutritionist, etc.) it is possible to lose weight or maintain your current weight while pregnant. It's possible to leave the hospital weighing less than you did before you were pregnant. I think this is only done in the cases of morbidly obese women and, again, only under the close supervision of doctors.

Have you thought about meeting with your physician and/or OBGYN and talking to them about this? They may have some tips for you.

Hey my mom is an OBGYN. here is her input:

if youre overweight before you become pregnant you are at risk for high blood pressure and diabetes.  Research has also shown women who don't lose extra weight before pregnancy tend to gain extra weight after their child is born.

i'm in agreement here.  And, want to make one point.

You're going to be "housing" a tiny little baby inside there for 9/10 months.  Get "healthy" not "skinny".  Focus on good eating habits and taking vitamins.  Start a walking routine.  Have fun with it.  You're about to embark on the best time of your life.  Good luck to you!

I've had 4 children, the first I was withing a very healthy weight, had 2 hr labor, was at an 8 when arriving to the hospital and two pushes and he was out. With each pg I was heavier and had a harder time with each one.

Kaila_a said it straight up. Also young girls rarely take the advice of mothers and mothers in laws when it comes to health and what to do during a pg. LISTEN to your elders. Problems from being overweight and gaining too much weight from pg shows up later in life. Bigger babies cause havoc on female organs and the only way to fix it is with surgery later!!! Do your kegals ladies, you won't realize how important until later in life!!! I'm sorry I didn't listen to my doctor about weight gain and large babies. My bladder, uterine prolapse etc could have been prevented.

You are going to want to take folic acid before becoming pg as well. I think it is great that you are researching the subject beforehand. Your child and it's mother will be healthier for it.

Original Post by r4eboxer:

Also young girls rarely take the advice of mothers and mothers in laws when it comes to health and what to do during a pg. LISTEN to your elders. Problems from being overweight and gaining too much weight from pg shows up later in life. Bigger babies cause havoc on female organs and the only way to fix it is with surgery later!!! Do your kegals ladies, you won't realize how important until later in life!!! I'm sorry I didn't listen to my doctor about weight gain and large babies. My bladder, uterine prolapse etc could have been prevented.

 I don't agree with this. Medical information changes all the time. What doctors thought was okay to do when my mother was pregnant with me may have been found to be risky or unhealthy since then. It's okay to consider advice from your mother/mother-in-law/parents but your doctor is the one who should ultimately be consulted (unless, of course, your parents are doctors themselves). I have found my mother to be a wealth of information on situations I encountered AFTER my babies were born.

Vanessa makes a good point: getting HEALTHY is the most important thing. I don't think you necessarily need to drop all the weight before conceiving but having a regular exercise routine and adopting healthy eating habits will make a big difference.

Your body will respond to labor better if you are in shape however being in shape does NOT guarantee a short labor. I have a friend who worked out through her entire pregnancy, ate well, gained only 20 pounds and still went through 26 hours of labor with 2 hours of pushing.

I do agree on the folic acid topic. It's been shown that taking folic acid supplements (or even prenatal vitamins) while TTC helps greatly.

Hi Deb

I work for a perinatologist group.  All we see are high risk pregnancies.  I have no statistics to back this up but I can tell you more of our patients were significantly overweight before they got pregnant.  It is dangerous for both mother and baby.  Your risk of gestational diabetes is greater, your risk of pre-term labor is greater, it is harder to control your blood pressure.  It is even harder, sometimes, to monitor the baby.

You do not have to be thin, but if you can get your weight down before you get pregnant, you have a better chance of having a healthy, happy pregnancy, delivery and baby.  You also won't be faced with being 100 pounds overweight with the inevitable baby weight.

This is, unfortunately, one instance that your parents are correct.

As an overweight woman who recently had a beautiful, perfectly healthy baby boy after a textbook pregnancy, I say no, you don't NEED to lose weight first. However, as others have said, you are at higher risk the higher your weight is, and cutting down your weight will be even more difficult once you've had the baby... You'll have the added baby weight, and most babys don't take kindly to "Sorry hun, mommy needs to go exercise.", espesially if you're breastfeeding and trying to work around that. When they're asleep, you're preoccupied with either catching up on your own sleep or attempting to get chores done, and even the most helpful hubby can only help out so much after he's come home from working all day (and as far as I can tell, not one of them really understands how hard it is to be stuck with the baby all day every day)

If I could go back and drop 40 pounds before I got pregnant, I would have, because it might have made things easier on me all around, and I certainly wouldn't be so fussed by this 15 pounds I can't seem to drop now!

I was overweight before I had my son, gained weight horribly during the pregnancy, suffered from gestational hypertension as a result and the baby had to be induced early because I was in danger of developing full-blown pre-eclampsia.  As a little extra, the delivery required intervention.  Not a happy experience.

Like peera above, being seriously overweight didn't prevent me from getting pregnant or from delivering a healthy child but if I'd know what was up ahead I'd have got to a sensible weight beforehand and paid a lot more attention to getting a healthy diet during pregnancy. 

Hello....here's my two cents

Even if the baby is born healthy I would strongly suggest being as healthy as you can before you get pregnant.  Eighty pounds is alot and if you are small in stature it is even more scary to carry around.  I don't doubt that you could have a normal pregnancy & baby with the extra weight but think about this...what example do you want to set for your baby?  How easy do you want it to be to run around and chase your beautiful baby and play? 

Chance are that after you have your baby you will carry an additional 10-20 pounds to your pre-pregnancy weight.  I was only 20-30 pounds overweight when I got  pregnant this 4th time but it was enough for me to FINALLY get it.  I didn't want to end up 40-50 pounds overweight once the baby was born. So i have been watching what I eat & exercising more than I did in any of the other pregnancies.  I wanted energy to be the best mom I can be.  I wanted to feel good about myself and set a good example for my daughters & sons.  I wanted to be more active and involved and babies make you tired as it is...I didn't need to add to that.

Just do the best you can to start off healthy for your family!  Good luck!!