Dietary component of lifestyle interventions helps obese pregnant women

Approximately 30% of pregnant women in developed countries are overweight or obese.1 Maternal obesity is a major risk factor for maternal and fetal complications, including maternal and fetal mortality, miscarriage, gestational diabetes mellitus, pregnancy-induced hypertensive disorders, infection, thromboembolic disease, induction of labour, macrosomia, caesarean section and stillbirth.2 In 2009, the Institute of Medicine revised its recommendations for weight gain in pregnancy advising that overweight and obese women should restrict gestational weight gain to 15–25 lb (6.8–11.3 kg) and 11–20 lb (4.9–9 kg), respectively.2 The question then became how to achieve this. A meta-analysis of dietary intervention trials reported that dietary interventions, especially when repeated throughout pregnancy, were effective in reducing gestational weight gain in obese pregnant women by 6.5 kg compared to control.3 Another meta-analysis of physical intervention trials also reported a small, but significant, reduction in gestational weight gain of −0.61 kg compared to control.4 A meta-analysis of all intervention types reported a 1.42 kg reduction in gestational weight gain with any intervention compared to control.