A weighty issue when pregnant

KENT BLECHYNDEN/ The Dominion Post

FOOD BEFORE THOUGHT: Jemma Voice put on 30kg due to food cravings when pregnant.

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Women who develop weird food cravings and pile on excessive amounts of weight during pregnancy may be able to blame their brains.

An Otago University physiology researcher has been given a $820,000 government grant to work out why four of out of 10 New Zealand women put on excessive weight during pregnancy.

Colin Brown said it was all to do with the brain, which could also explain why some women have food cravings.

"Not only do women want to eat more, they want to eat some bizarre stuff like pickle and icecream.

"If you eat too much, you will put on weight. But there is something so complex going on in the brain underpinning that simple idea. Even though we are aware of it, some people just can't control it and that's what we will look at."

Wellington woman Jemma Voice, 22, knows exactly what Dr Brown is talking about. While pregnant with her first child last year she put on 30 kilograms.

"I had sausage rolls for breakfast for the first three months and I also had to have cheese on everything. I ate so much cheese and I didn't even like it before I was pregnant," she said.

"I had no idea why I started wanting that food, but I just went with it."

Pregnant again, she is now more aware of what she eats, though it hasn't stopped the cravings.

"I went through a stage this time where I really, really loved carrots. It's quite bizarre."

Women with a healthy weight should gain between 11.5 and 16 kilograms during pregnancy, according to Health Ministry guidelines. But the requirements vary – thinner women may need to gain more weight and obese women much less.

Dr Brown said two hormones involved in pregnancy – oxytocin and prolactin – were believed to act as "off" and "on" appetite switches.

Understanding how the hormones interacted could help discover which mothers were likely to be at greatest risk.

Excessive weight gain not only put their health in danger, but there was also a greater risk of birth complications, he said.

The grant from the Government's Marsden Fund for research would be used to employ a research fellow. About $66 million has been allocated to support 111 projects.

- © Fairfax NZ News