Gynecology Blog

Health experts recommended obese women gain at least 15 pounds during pregnancy. The 2009 IOM guidelines now recommend a weight gain of 11 to 20 pounds. However, some health experts say the new recommendations may still allow for too much extra weight for obese pregnant women. Research shows obese women are more likely than normal-weight women to have pregnancy-related complications, like gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, preeclampsia, higher rates of C-section delivery and infant death. Research also shows babies born to obese moms are more likely to have excess body fat and insulin resistance. Thus, the cycle of obesity and health problems may be perpetuated into the next generation. Raul Artal, M.D., Obstetrician/Gynecologist with Saint Louis University says obese women who gain less than 10 pounds while pregnant are much less likely to develop pregnancy-related complications.

According to the CDC, about 4.3 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2007. During pregnancy, a woman needs to provide nourishment for herself and for the growing fetus. In 2009, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued updated guidelines on pregnancy weight gain, recommending women of normal pre-pregnancy weight gain 25 to 35 extra pounds.

By the end of the pregnancy, the weight of the baby accounts for about one-fourth of the total weight gain (roughly 7 to 8 pounds). Another seven pounds is for maternal stores of nutrients, protein and fat. The rest of the weight can be attributed to the placenta (1 to 2 pounds), amniotic fluid (2 pounds), uterus (2 pounds), breast tissue (2 pounds), body fluids (4 pounds) and maternal blood (4 pounds).

Birth weights in the United States are on the decline, a study has found. The report, released Thursday, found a small but significant decrease in average birth weights from 1990 to 2005, for reasons that scientists say are unclear. The numbers, published in the February issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, mark a shift from earlier reports that noted a rise in birth weights in the latter part of the 20th century. More...

Parents will soon be able to determine the gender of their unborn accurately at early stages of pregnancy, a new study finds. Ultrasound performed in the second trimester had long been the easiest method to detect the gender of the fetus.

In cases, in which the determination of the gender needed to be performed in earlier stages due to medical reasons, however, invasive tests such as amniocentesis, associated with a small risk of miscarriage, were inevitable. More...

Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology Chairman Tsai Hong-te said yesterday women in the first three months of pregnancy should not receive the swine flu vaccine. Women more than three months pregnant should take the advice of their doctor when deciding whether to get vaccinated, Tsai said.

Tsai, who held a press conference at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), complained that his previous comments on the vaccine had been misreported by the media. He was referring to a report in the latest edition of Next Magazine quoting him saying that pregnant women should not take the vaccine and that the CDC should reconsider its vaccination program, especially for pregnant women, noting that the vaccine could have a negative effect on pregnant women and their babies. More...

Researchers are reporting that they are now able to determine a foetus’ gender with 100% accuracy at five weeks using a maternal blood test. Previous tests had only been available for women several months into their pregnancies. The findings were reported this week in the publication Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The study was conducted from 2003 to 2009 and included 201 expectant mothers in the Netherlands who were referred by geneticists or gynaecologists advising them on possible genetic diseases. Although the researchers were not able to issue a conclusion in 12 of the cases, in the 189 cases on which they did make a determination, they were correct 189 times. More...

Nyree Paten gained so little weight during her recent pregnancy that some of her neighbors did not even realize she was expecting. A few days before her due date, she weighed only two pounds more than she had at her first prenatal visit.

But Ms. Paten, 35, of the Bronx, was under doctor’s orders to gain no more than 10 or 15 pounds — she was already about 100 pounds overweight. More...

Repeat teen pregnancy is much lower than average among mothers who participate in the University of Kentucky’s Young Parents Program, according to a study. The study followed 1,386 teen mothers who took part in the program and showed that less than 1 percent had a repeat pregnancy within three years, compared with 18.7 percent of teen mothers statewide, according to a UK release Thursday. The study was published in the Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology last year. More...

The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is one of 10 programs in the country to receive a $2.4 million grant to establish a scholars program.

The five-year grant, from the federal National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), establishes the medical school as a Women's Reproductive Health Research (WRHR) Career Development Center. The initiative promotes research that will benefit the health of women. Scholars will expand research on subjects ranging from women's infectious diseases to maternal fetal physiology to endometrial cancer. More...

The Gynecologists at Avera Women's say girls should come in for their first exam between the ages of 13 and 15 and that first visit is much more about education than anything else. We do some screening for high risk behaviors, menstrual disorders, problems with pain, as well as educating them to what's normal for their body and age. We want to make sure they are going through normal developmental stages and a lot of counseling. More...