Gestational Obesity

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Recommended: Contributory factors for obesity

Introduction
Obesity is characterized by comparing height and weight measurement to determine a Body Mass Index as normal, overweight or obese. African- American women maintain the highest rates of obesity, infant mortality and pre-term births in comparison to non-Hispanic Caucasian women (Isaac & Thomas, 2013). According to the text Race, Ethnicity and Health, obesity rates for African-American women between ages two to nineteen was 24%, and obesity rates for Caucasians was 14%. Considering these facts, many women are unaware of the adverse effects that becoming pregnant with high BMI indexes or gaining too much weight during pregnancy can have on the fetus and the mother. It is important for women to understand what a healthy amount of weight to gain based on their personal proportions. “The recommended gain for women of normal size (BMI 19.8- 26) is 11.5- 16kg; for women with low BMI (below 19.8), the recommended gain is 12.5- 18 kg; where, for women with a high BMI (above 26-29), it is 7-11.5 kg. The target gain for obese women (BMI above 29) is at least 6.8 kg” (Hickey, 1997). Also not gaining enough weight can have adverse effects on the fetus. The high prevalence of gestational obesity in the African American community would be beneficial to educate women on the detrimental life span idiopathic diseases that affect infants, complicate pregnancies and deliveries through individual readiness plans at a local community health center.
Review of data
Gestational obesity negatively impacts the long-term health of the infant. Gestational obesity is associated with intellectual delays seen later in the child’s life. An intellectual delay could be damaging to the child’s ability to learn and becoming a fully functioning adult. Pre-p...

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...Obstetric Outcomes. PubMed, 44(2). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21327006
Hickey, C. A., McNeal, S. F., Menefee, L., & Ivey, S. (1997 October). Prenatal Weight Gain Within Upper and Lower Recommended Ranges: Effect on Birth weight of Black and White Infants. Obstetrician and Gynecology, 90(4).
Hull, K., Montgomery K. S., Vireday P., & Kendall-Tackett K. (2011 fall). Maternal Obesity From All Sides. The Journal of Perinatal Education, 20(4).
Isaac, L. A. and Thomas L. A.(2013). Race, Ethnicity, and Health: A Public Health Reader. San Francisco, CA: A Wiley Imprint. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22942626 Tanda, R., Salsberry, P. J., Reagan, P. B., & Fang, M. Z. (2013 February). The Impact of Prepregnancy Obesity on Children’s Cognitive Test Scores. NIH Public Access Author Manuscript, 17(2). http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10995-012-0964-4#page-1

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