Video Text Alternative: NICHD Spotlight: Dr. Catherine Spong Discusses Findings from an NICHD Study on Weight Gain during Pregnancy

To view the original video and read the Spotlight, please go to http://www.nichd.nih.gov/news/resources/spotlight/Pages/082813-pregnancy-weight.aspx

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TITLE SLIDE: NICHD Spotlight Summarizing the pregnancy and weight gain study NIH/Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development logo
GRAPHIC SLIDE: Catherine Spong, M.D. Dr. Spong on camera.	Dr. Catherine Spong: This was a study that was undertaken in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Maternal Fetal Medicine Unit Network, which is a network of clinical sites across the United States that does studies and trials in pregnancy, especially in high-risk pregnancies.
Camera Cut. Dr. Spong on camera.	Dr. Catherine Spong: One of the important things to remember about when you look at the results from this study looking at weight gain is it's only—the data is only in women in their first pregnancy who were healthy. So they didn't have other health problems, such as hypertension or diabetes. They weren't carrying multi-fetal gestations. And they weren't someone in their second or third or fourth pregnancy.
Camera Cut. Dr. Spong on camera.	Dr. Catherine Spong: We—in about 9,000 women, we had information on their pre-pregnancy weight as well as their weight gain during pregnancy and were able to evaluate how pregnancy weight gain affected their outcome. And what we found was that, in fact, about three out of four women gained more weight than would be recommended by the 2009 Institute of Medicine guidelines. Only about 1 out of 10 women actually gained within the guidelines.
Camera Cut. Dr. Spong on camera.	Dr. Catherine Spong: Women who gained excessive weight had more pregnancy complications, including hypertension in pregnancy, cesarean deliveries, and delivering a baby who's large. And these increases were pretty dramatic. For example, it was about 32 percent of women who had high blood pressure in pregnancy if they gained excessive weight, compared to only about 20 percent of women who did not gain excessive weight. So significant increases in adverse outcomes in pregnancy with excessive weight gain.