A new report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found out that for the women who got pregnant in 2014, over 50 percent of them were either obese or overweight. A top researcher Amy Branum said that the report for the first time concentrated on Body Mass Index and it’s disappointing to see the negative results. She works as a statistician at CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. For the researcher to get a broader picture of the situation, they included all the states except Rhode Island, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Pregnancy and BMI

Calculating the body mass index basically means determination of an individual’s fat content by basing on the height and weight. The United States is facing an overweight epidemic and this is made worse by obesity and overweight in pregnancy. This is according to Branum.

According to the report’s findings, in 2014 about 4 percent of women were underweight before they got pregnant. Close to 46 percent other women became pregnant with a normal weight. However, nearly over one-quarters of them were overweight at the time of pregnancy and more than a quarter were obese.

The women who were more likely to be overweight before pregnancy included: first-time pregnant women, women possessing a college degree, women who fit their own delivery bills, Asian-American women and woman below 20 years of age. Higher chances were that the obese women came from the black race, Alaska Native, American Indian or more than 40 years. Women with a degree were less likely to be obese. Branum’s team also found out that those with obesity at the time of pregnancy were high likely to pay the delivery bills using Medicaid.

Overweight health implications on pregnancy

Doctor Siobhan Dolan, who works with March of Dimes as a medical adviser said that overweight or obese have real health implications on pregnancy. The two most common complications associated with obese or overweight before and during pregnant period are diabetes and high blood pressure. Some of the problems that these conditions cause include early delivery or making it a necessity to use cesarean section. These may ultimately cause the mother and the infant complications.

Dolan had a general advice to all the women. She said that they should visit a doctor before pregnancy so that they could be helped on healthy living. Most of the things done before pregnancy revolve around prevention. A healthy weight prior to pregnancy is one way of prevention.

In addition to that, she advised the women with medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure to get them under control before becoming pregnant.