Poor women often gain too many pregnancy pounds

Time to cut entitlements - the bucks are being spent on Calories.

A new study finds that young, low-income women often gain too much weight during pregnancy, raising concerns about the potential long-term impact on their obesity risk.

Nearly two-thirds of 427 pregnant women, mostly black or Hispanic, seen at two U.S. medical clinics put on more than the recommended weight during pregnancy.

And a year after giving birth, about half had retained at least 10 of their pregnancy pounds.

Writing in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Dr. Bonnie E. Gould Rothberg of Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues say the findings are worrisome.

Excess weight gain during pregnancy increases the odds of having a larger-than-normal baby and needing a C-section, for example. And women are less likely to be able to shed their pregnancy pounds afterward, raising their risk of diabetes and high blood pressure.

Studies also hint that large newborns are more likely to become overweight themselves down the road.

The researchers found that before pregnancy, just shy of a quarter of the women were overweight, and slightly more were obese.

Among women who were normal-weight before pregnancy, four in 10 fit the definition of "overweight" one year after giving birth, and one in 20 fell into the obese category.

Of those who were overweight before becoming pregnant, more than half were obese one year after delivery, based on body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight in relation to height.

The sooner, the better.