Women who are overweight or obese are more likely than women who are in the healthy weight range to have babies that are above average weight at birth.  Above average weight babies are more likely than lighter babies to be overweight later in life.

 In a study of 4000 Canadian mother and baby pairs, researchers from the CHEO Research Institute (Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario) investigated if the amount of weight a woman puts on during her pregnancy also affects her baby’s birth weight. They found that excessive gestational weight gain can be just as problematic as being overweight or obese pre-pregnancy.

This means that women who are in the healthy weight range before they are pregnant but put on a lot of weight during pregnancy have a heightened risk of having an above average weight baby.