 Wei Perng, PhD, MPH Sitting the month. Most women of Asian or Middle Eastern descent can rattle off a list of things a new mother must not do in the month following delivery. The most common examples include: taking a bath, washing her hair, drinking cold beverages or foods, touching cold water, washing dishes, lifting heavy items (probably an all-around good idea anyway), sitting in front of a fan… and heaven forbid, do not even think about leaving the house. In Mandarin, we call this “sitting the month.” The motivation behind these rules, which have been featured on NPR, is to protect the recuperating mother from environments that may leave her vulnerable to chronic conditions later on. As wacky as these ideas seemed to me as a child, I recently began to wonder whether the postpartum period is, indeed, a sensitive period for a new mother’s future well-being. While there is little scientific research on this topic, the postpartum period is undoubtedly a time of rapid change in hormones, weight, and lifestyle that could set the tone for health down the road.
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 Sheryl Rifas-Shiman, MPH In the August 2017 issue of Pediatrics, several colleagues and I reported that mothers who consumed more sugary beverages – including sugary soda and fruit drinks – in mid-pregnancy had children with higher amounts of body fat in mid-childhood, even when we considered the children’s own intake of sugary beverages. We also examined the effect of drinking water and 100% fruit juice during the same time period, and found no associations between these drinks and children’s later body fat. We hypothesized that the second trimester of pregnancy may be a sensitive period with regards to children’s body fat deposits, and that avoiding high intake of sugary beverages during pregnancy may reduce the risk of childhood overweight and obesity.
Click on the Read More button for the Pediatrics’ press release…  A friend recently told me that she gained 30 pounds during the first trimester of her pregnancy. Because I work in obesity research, she asked me if that sounded like too much. I suggested that she talk to her doctor, and she said “Well, if it was a problem, wouldn’t my doctor bring it up with me?”
 Diabetes that appears for the first time in pregnancy is called gestational diabetes, and affects 5 to 20% of pregnant women. High blood sugar – also known as hyperglycemia – in pregnancy is associated with adverse outcomes for both mother and child, including higher rates of pre-eclampsia, caesarian section, babies born large for their gestational age and shoulder dystocia, and hypoglycemia in newborns. We also know that treatment of gestational diabetes decreases the risk of these complications.
 I recently participated in a ‘debate’ about whether we should routinely weigh pregnant women. The debate, which I thought would make interesting fodder for this blog, was just published in the June 2015 edition of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. I’ll try to get permission to also post the other side, “Routine weighing does not solve the problem of obesity in pregnancy”, which is currently behind a paywall.
Gestational weight gain (GWG) outside of recommended ranges is a common and growing public health challenge. Since 2000, the percent of US women gaining weight during pregnancy in excess of current guidelines increased 3% – from an already high 42.5% in 2000-1 to 45.5% in 2008-9. In combination with the ~20% of women with inadequate gain, almost 2/3 of women are now gaining outside of recommended ranges. |
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