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A preliminary study on the pattern of weight change from pregnancy to 6 months postpartum: a latent growth model approach

International Journal of Obesity volume 35, pages 1079–1086 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective:

There is a lack of comprehensive understanding about patterns of weight change from pregnancy to childbirth and beyond. We describe the trajectory of weight change pattern from pre-pregnancy to 6 months postpartum and examine demographical and perinatal variables that predict the weight change using the latent growth model (LGM).

Design and subjects:

This study used a longitudinal design. The study participants were 120 women whose body weights were measured at eight time points.

Results:

The adjusted mean pre-pregnancy weight was 52.57 kg. When the weight growth rate for 10–13 weeks of pregnancy and pre-pregnancy weight was set to 1, the body-weight change rate was 2.20 during the second trimester, 2.14 during the third trimester, –2.90 during the period from the third trimester to 2–3 weeks postpartum, –0.08 during the period from 2–3 weeks to 4–5 weeks postpartum, –0.37 during the period from 4–5 weeks to 11–12 weeks postpartum, and –0.65 during the period from 11–12 weeks to 24–25 weeks postpartum. On average, body weight increased 26.54% (13.95 kg) from pre-pregnancy to 36–39 weeks of pregnancy and body weight remained 6.26% (3.29 kg) higher at 24–25 weeks postpartum compare with pre-pregnancy. In terms of factors related to body weight, age was positively associated with pre-pregnancy body weight. Parity had a negative effect on the change of body weight. Women who had an increased change rate in body weight had higher newborn birth weights.

Conclusions:

We found that weight change from pregnancy to postpartum followed a pattern that could be specified using the LGM approach. The women retained more than 6% of weight at 6 months postpartum compared with their pre-pregnancy weight.

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Acknowledgements

We thank YM Chen and TA Sheu for their assistance with data collection.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nursing, Oriental Institute of Technology College, Taipei, Taiwan

    C-F Lee

  2. Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan

    C-F Lee

  3. Department of Education, National Chiayi University, Chiayi, Taiwan

    F-M Hwang

  4. Institute of Clinical and Community Health Nursing, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Y-M Liou

  5. Institute of Clinical and Community Health Nursing, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

    L-Y Chien

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Correspondence to L-Y Chien.

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Lee, CF., Hwang, FM., Liou, YM. et al. A preliminary study on the pattern of weight change from pregnancy to 6 months postpartum: a latent growth model approach. Int J Obes 35, 1079–1086 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2010.225

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