Women are putting on too much or too little weight

A significant number of women are putting on too much or too little weight during pregnancy, a new study suggests. As a result there is a higher risk of complications for both the mother and the baby, experts said.

The researchers, led by academics from Monash University in Australia, examined the amount of weight women put on in pregnancy, also known as gestational weight gain (GWG) using data from international studies on more than 1.6 million women. They found that before pregnancy only half of the women studied (53%) had a body mass index score within the “normal” range, some 19% were overweight, 22% were obese and 6% were classed as underweight.

But during pregnancy, only a third (32%) had GWG within recommended ranges, with 23% ga

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