Maternal age and ‘toxic food’ driving dangerous gestational weight gain, endocrinologist warns

The effects are lifelong and often intergenerational, Professor Helena Teede says.

Older maternal ages and higher pre-pregnancy BMIs are pushing up weight trajectories in pregnancies, putting mothers and babies at risk, a top endocrinologist warns.

More than two-thirds of Australia’s 300,000 annual pregnancies are now affected by modifiable risk factors related to unhealthy weight gain, says Professor Helena Teede, co-author of a new systematic review on gestational weight gain (GWG).

GWG is associated with higher birthweight, a greater risk of caesarean section, hypertensive disorders during pregnancy, macrosomia and neonatal ICU admissions.

While low GWG also causes issues, the scale of high GWG was the most striking finding of the Monash University–led research, said Professor Teede, director of the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation in Melbourne.

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