Healthy Weight

Now that you are approaching half way through your pregnancy it's important to increase how much nutritious food you eat compared to early pregnancy, while keeping your weight gain in a healthy range. Gaining too much weight during pregnancy can increase your risk of cesarean section, gestational diabetes and high blood pressure. It can also put your baby in danger of being born too early, or too large. Gaining too little weight during pregnancy can also be harmful to you and your baby.

The resources below include guidelines for optimal weight gain that may be useful for you, but keep in mind that weight gain during pregnancy will be different for everybody. It is important to speak with your health care provider if you are concerned that you are gaining too much or too little weight.

• HealthyFamiliesBC - Guidelines for weight gain in the second trimester

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• The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada - Optimal weight gain and BMI

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• Association of Ontario Midwives - Clinical guidelines for managing women with low or high BMI

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• The MotHERS Program - Calculate your BMI and pregnancy weight gain