Pregnancy is associated with weight gain, and it is normal for expectant mothers to worry about their weight. Are you gaining enough weight? Are you putting on weight faster than you should? What portion of your weight gain can be attributed to your baby and the placenta, and what portion is additional fat? Is your pre-pregnancy weight relevant when it comes to pregnancy weight gain? Let’s take a closer look at all of these questions.
Every pregnant women gains weight at a different rate. While it is important to make sure that you are getting adequate nutrition and that your diet is healthy and balanced (includes foods from all major food groups), obsessing over your exact weight gain or lack thereof is not necessary. What you should probably do if you want a clearer insight into your eating habits, is track the number of calories you are getting. Pregnant women are recommended to consume around 300 calories more than they would when not expecting a baby.
Expectant mothers with a healthy pre-pregnancy weight and body mass index (BMI) should gain somewhere between 25 and 35 pounds. It is normally more for women who started their pregnancies with a BMI that is on the low side, and slightly less for those who started out with excess weight. Pregnancy is not a time to start dieting, but it should not have to be a time to eat without limits, either. Remember that weight gain is not usually a nice steady graph, but something that goes in spurts. That’s totally normal, and just the way nature works.
Newborn babies tend to weight between 6 lbs and 10 lbs. A placenta averages 1.5 lbs, while the baby’s amniotic fluid amounts to around 2 lbs. So, after you give birth you can expect to lose anywhere up to 14 lbs immediately.