Excessive pregnancy weight gain and retention of weight following pregnancy can lead to higher
postpartum BMI and result in a shift from overweight to obese. In the current study, 76% of the overweight women had excessive first pregnancy weight gains and a third of those women changed their prepregnancy BMI at second pregnancy to obese in comparison to only 28% and 25%, respectively, for women with normal and low pregnancy weight gains. There is evidence that reducing current pregnancy weight gain recommendations, particularly for obese women, results in decreased risk of adverse obstetric and neonatal outcomes.