Women who gain more than 40 pounds (18 kg ) during pregnancy have nearly twice the risk of delivering a heavy baby as those who gain less, US researchers said on Friday.

The study of more than 40,000 U.S. women and their babies found as many as one in five women gains too much weight during pregnancy, doubling the chances her baby will weigh 9 pounds (4 kg) or more.

And they found women who gain more than 40 pounds during pregnancy are more likely to have a heavy baby even if they do not have gestational diabetes, a short-term form of diabetes linked with pregnancy that is known to increase the risk of having a big baby.

"Because there are so many women who are gaining more than 40 pounds during pregnancy, it's an important health message for most women to avoid excessive weight during pregnancy," Dr. Teresa Hillier of Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon, whose study appears in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, said in a telephone interview.

Hillier said gaining extra weight during pregnancy increases the risk for having heavy babies, and studies suggest these babies are programed to become overweight or obese later in life.

According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, babies who weigh more than 9 pounds at birth are considered heavy.

A large baby can pose risks for a difficult delivery -- increasing the chances of vaginal tearing, bleeding, and Caesarian-sections for the mother and the risk of stuck shoulders and broken collar bones for the baby.

In the study, Hillier and colleagues examined the medical records of 41,540 women who gave birth in Washington, Oregon and Hawaii from 1995-2003. All had been tested for gestational diabetes and 5.4 percent were treated for it with a program of diet, exercise and insulin, if needed, to control blood sugar.

Overall, 20 percent of the women in the study who gained more than 40 pounds -- the upper limit of pregnancy weight gain recommendations in the United States -- gave birth to heavy babies.

Fewer than 12 percent of women in the study with normal weight gain delivered heavy babies, she said.

The group at greatest risk were those who gained more than 40 pounds and had gestational diabetes. Nearly 30 percent of these women had heavy babies, compared with 13.5 percent of women with gestational diabetes who had normal weight gains during pregnancy.

The researchers said the findings suggest all women should avoid excessive weight gain during pregnancy. And women who are being treated for gestational diabetes should also strive to keep weight gain below 40 pounds.

"You can't treat the glucose and ignore the weight gain issue," Hillier said.

Weight gain during pregnancy has been rising over the past two decades, and some researchers suspect this may be fueling an epidemic of childhood obesity.

美國(guó)研究人員于上周五稱，懷孕期間體重增幅超過(guò)40磅（18公斤）的女性生出超重嬰兒的幾率幾乎是增重較少女性的兩倍。

該研究共對(duì)美國(guó)4萬(wàn)多個(gè)女性和她們的寶寶進(jìn)行了調(diào)查。調(diào)查結(jié)果顯示，其中多達(dá)五分之一的女性懷孕期間體重增長(zhǎng)過(guò)多，這使她們的孩子出生體重達(dá)或超過(guò)9磅（4公斤）的幾率增加了一倍。

此外，研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，孕期體重增加超過(guò)40磅的女性即使沒(méi)有患妊娠糖尿病，也更易生出體重超標(biāo)的嬰兒。妊娠糖尿病是孕婦在妊娠期間易患的一種臨時(shí)性的糖尿病，該病會(huì)增加孕婦生出超重嬰兒的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。

位于俄勒岡州波特蘭市的凱薩健康研究中心的特里薩• 希利爾博士在電話采訪中說(shuō)：“現(xiàn)在有很多孕婦孕期體重增幅超過(guò)40磅，所以對(duì)于大多數(shù)女性來(lái)說(shuō)，避免孕期增重過(guò)度是一個(gè)很重要的健康信息。”該研究結(jié)果在《產(chǎn)科和婦科醫(yī)學(xué)》上發(fā)表。

希利爾稱，孕期增重過(guò)多會(huì)增加生出超重嬰兒的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。此外，研究表明，這些孩子日后體重超標(biāo)或肥胖的可能性也較大。

根據(jù)美國(guó)婦產(chǎn)科醫(yī)師協(xié)會(huì)的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，嬰兒出生時(shí)體重超過(guò)9磅即為超重。

胎兒過(guò)大會(huì)增加難產(chǎn)的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)——產(chǎn)道撕裂、大出血、剖腹產(chǎn)以及嬰兒肩難產(chǎn)和鎖骨骨折的幾率增大。

在研究過(guò)程中，希利爾及其同事對(duì)華盛頓、俄勒岡和夏威夷1995年至2003年間的41540名孕婦的病歷進(jìn)行了研究。這些孕婦都接受了妊娠糖尿病檢測(cè)，其中5.4%的人通過(guò)飲食、運(yùn)動(dòng)或注射胰島素（如果需要的話）控制血糖，治療糖尿病。

總體來(lái)看，在孕期體重增幅超過(guò)40磅的女性中，有20%的人生下了超重嬰兒。在美國(guó)，孕期增重建議最高上限為40磅。

她說(shuō)，孕期體重增幅在正常范圍內(nèi)的女性中，生下了超重嬰兒的不到12%。

其中最危險(xiǎn)的群體是孕期增重超過(guò)40磅且患有妊娠糖尿病的人，她們當(dāng)中近30%的人生出了超重嬰兒，而這一數(shù)字在體重增幅正常、患妊娠糖尿病的孕婦中僅為13.5%。

研究者稱，該結(jié)果表明，所有女性都要避免孕期增重過(guò)度，而且正在接受妊娠糖尿病治療的孕婦也要盡量將體重增幅控制在40磅以內(nèi)。

希利爾說(shuō)：“孕婦不能只顧控制血糖，而忽視體重增加的危險(xiǎn)。”

在過(guò)去20年中，女性孕期增重過(guò)度的問(wèn)題越來(lái)越嚴(yán)重。一些研究者認(rèn)為，這可能會(huì)導(dǎo)致兒童肥胖的流行。