Gynecology Blog

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).

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...

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...