For the first time in 20 years, the Institute of Medicine updated the guidelines on how much weight gain is acceptable during pregnancy. While I’m glad the medical profession is making the effort to address the growing challenge of obesity during pregnancy, I think we need to do more to reach out to our expectant mothers with the information they need to make healthy nutritional choices during pregnancy.
The new guidelines specify acceptable weight gain ranges for women of all sizes based on their body mass index (BMI), and the ranges now include a category for obese women. This addresses a worrying trend in the U.S., where our waistlines are expanding rapidly and causing more health concerns. The average total weight gain during pregnancy in the 1940s thru the 1960s was just under twenty pounds. By the 1970s, and into the 1990s, it had jumped-to twenty-six to thirty-one pounds. And it has continued to rise - one of several factors prompting release of the new guidelines.
As a physician, I’m happy we have new guidelines, but we need to do a better job of communicating the ranges to our patients and tailoring our recommendations to each expectant mother. In a recent large study of American women, 27 percent were given no advice on how much weight to gain over the course of their pregnancies. Among those who did get advice, many got a generic number, not a weight range tailored to their particular situation. This resulted in 14 percent being told to gain less than they really should and 22 percent being told to gain more than they should. Doctors should take time to explain the ranges and give patients the facts behind the recommendations. It’s part of our job to help bring healthy, happy babies into this world.
Feeding Baby Green includes these new guidelines and everything you need to know about giving your baby the best start by how you eat during pregnancy (and nursing). It makes a bigger difference than most people think.
To learn more, go to http://www.drgreene.com
As a father of four himself, Dr. Greene has devoted himself to freely giving real answers to parents' real questions -- from questions about those all too common childhood conditions to those that address the most rare childhood illnesses. His answers combine cutting edge science, practical wisdom, warm empathy, and a deep respect for parents, children, and the environment. He is also an electrifying public speaker, and has personally touched many during his talks in North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
Dr. Greene is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of California at San Francisco. Upon completion of his pediatric residency program at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Northern California he served as Chief Resident. He entered primary care pediatrics in January 1993. He is now a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine, an Attending Pediatrician at Packard Children's Hospital, and a Senior Fellow at the University California San Francisco Center for the Health Professions.
Dr. Greene is the Past President of The Organic Center and on the Advisory Board of Healthy Child Healthy World. He is a founding partner of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment. He also consults for the Environmental Working Group.
In 1995, he launched DrGreene.com, cited by the AMA as “the pioneer physician Web site” on the Internet. His award-winning site receives over 440,.000 Unique Users a month from parents, concerned family members, students, and healthcare professionals. In addition to being the founder of DrGreene.com, he is the Chief of Future Health of A.D.A.M., a leading publisher of interactive health information. Dr. Greene has been recognized by Advance for Health Information Executives as one of the “Top 25 Most Influential Forces in Healthcare IT” and was named the Children's Health Hero of the Internet by Intel.
Dr. Greene has served as both President and Board Chair of Hi-Ethics (Health Internet Ethics), the non-profit organization formed to address privacy, advertising and content quality issues for Internet health consumers. He has also served as an advisor to URAC for both their inaugural and their updated health web site accreditation program. He is a founding member of the e-Patient Scholars Working Group, and a founding board member of the Center for Information Therapy.
Dr. Greene is a regular columnist for Kiwi Magazine, and is the online Pediatric Expert for WebMD, Rob Reiner’s ParentsAction.org, Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Lady’s Home Journal, Healthy Kids, and American Baby -- in addition to his own award-winning website. He is also the Pediatric Expert for The People’s Pharmacy (as heard on NPR). He was the original Pediatric Expert for both Yahoo! and iVillage.
Dr. Greene is the author of Raising Baby Green (Wiley, 2007), From First Kicks to First Steps (McGraw-Hill, 2004), The Parent's Complete Guide to Ear Infections (People's Medical Society, 1997), and a co-author of The A.D.A.M. Illustrated Family Health Guide (A.D.A.M., Inc., 2004). He is the medical expert for three additional books, The Parent's Soup A-to-Z Guide to Your New Baby, (Contemporary Books, 1998) The Parent's Soup A-to-Z Guide to Your Toddler, (Contemporary Books, 1999), and The Mother of All Baby Books, (Hungry Minds, Inc., 2002).
Dr. Greene is a frequent keynote speaker at important events such as IFOAM 2008 (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements), held in Modena Italy, the first European Internet health conference, held in Maastricht, the first International eHealth Association Conference, held in Jeddah, and the largest e-Healthcare World Conference, held in Las Vegas, the first Green Power Baby Shower, held in Hollywood. Dr. Greene also appears frequently on TV, radio, websites, and in newspapers and magazines around the world, including such venues as the TODAY Show, Good Morning America, Fox and Friends, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC network news, NPR, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time Magazine, Parade, Parenting, Parent, Child, Baby Talk, Working Mother, Real Simple, Better Home's & Gardens, and the Reader's Digest.
Dr. Greene was named a "Community Hero" for his heroism during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and selected to carry the Olympic Torch in the 1996 Centennial Olympic Torch Relay.
He loves to think about challenging ideas, he only eats certified organic, wild, or home grown foods, and he wears green socks.