RT Book, Section A1 Koutrouvelis, Gayle Olson A2 Pacheco, Luis D. A2 Saade, George R. A2 Hankins, Gary D.V. SR Print(0) ID 1115519916 T1 Obesity T2 Maternal Medicine YR 2015 FD 2015 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9780071824163 LK obgyn.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1115519916 RD 2024/03/28 AB The World Health Organization has identified obesity as a global health problem of epidemic proportions. When combined, obesity and overweight body mass index (BMI) categories are the fifth leading cause of death worldwide.1 Women alone comprise nearly 300 million of the currently obese population, posing significant challenges for women’s health care.1 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) via the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) in 1990 did not identify a prevalence of obesity more than 25% in any of the states in the United States. This is a marked contrast with the data from 2007 where the BRFSS noted a prevalence of more than 25% in at least 30 of the states in the United States. This suggests roughly one out of every four individuals residing in those states was obese.2 The most recent CDC analysis from 2011 to 2012 suggests a leveling in the incidence of obesity between 2003 and 2010 for adults but the prevalence remains high at 34.9%.3 Obesity during pregnancy confers long-term complications for both mothers and their offspring. Children of obese mothers have doubled the rate of childhood obesity when compared with children born to normal weight mothers.4 Mothers who are obese have difficulty adhering to dietary guidelines during pregnancy,5 often gaining excessive weight which is retained postpartum and propels them into a higher BMI category.5,6