Pregnant mothers who are overweight are 47 percent more likely to have a stillbirth than normal weight women, while obese women are more than twice as likely (107 percent more likely) according to a study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Following childbirth, women lost more weight with diet and exercise than diet alone according to a new review paper.

Overweight women are 29 percent less likely to get pregnant following in vitro fertilization than normal weight women according to a new study.

Women who gain an excessive amount of weight during pregnancy are more likely to gain weight long-term according to a study from Sweden.

The prevelance of pre-pregnancy obesity increased from 13 percent in 1992-1993 to 22 percent in 2002-2003 according to a study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Children were 27 percent more likely to be overweight if their mothers gained 35 pounds or more during pregnancy compared to children of mothers who gained less than 20 pounds according to a new study from researchers at the University of Porto in Porto, Portugal.

Being overweight reduces a woman’s ability to become pregnant, especially for the first time, according to a study from researchers at the National Institutes of Health.

“Whereas underweight is associated with poor fetal growth and elevated pregnancy loss, overweight is more strongly associated with diseases in pregnancy, pregnancy loss and stillbirth and high birth weight,” according to a paper from Michael Davis from the University of Adelaide in Adelaide, South Australia.

Women who become obese early in their life appear to have more reproductive difficulties than women who become obese later according to a paper from the University of Bologna in Bologna, Italy.

Approximately one-third (6 out of 19, or 32 percent) of obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) who were infertile before treatment, became pregnant within six months of taking the anti-diabetes drug metformin (Glucophage) according to a study from Amman, Jordan.

The likelihood of a pregnant woman having her child delivered by cesarean section is twice (2.1 times) as great if the woman is overweight (BMI 25-29.9), and three times (3.1 times) as great if she is obese (BMI 30 or more) according to a study from Seattle, Washington.

Obesity doubles the chances of a doctor not being able to induce labor in a pregnant women, thus requiring that she have the baby via cesarean delivery according to a new study.

Increasing body mass index (BMI) by one unit—the equivalent of gaining about 6-7 pounds for a woman of average height—reduces the chances of pregnancy after in vitro fertilization by 16 percent according to a new study from Austria.

Black and white women retain an average of 4.4 to 6.6 pounds with their first pregnancy, however, 42 percent of women retain at least 9 pounds, and 34 percent retain at least 14 pounds according to the U.S. NIH’s Obesity Guidelines (p. 19).

WEIGHT LOSS IMPROVES A WOMAN’S CHANCE of becoming pregnant suggests the results of a recent study.

GAINING MORE THAN 26 LBS during pregnancy was associated with post-pregnancy weight retention of 5 lbs or more.