Eating for two -- I wish I knew where that phrase came from. I suppose it has been around since the beginning of time, but it is the bane of the obstetrical world. Why? Because pregnant women are getting too fat. You will hear many a pregnant woman say, "I'm having a baby and now I have to eat for two. So, I'm just going to stop by the store and get me a quart of Häagen-Dazs?"
That wasn't always the case. In the 1940s and 1950s, obstetricians were telling their patients to gain no more than 20 pounds during their pregnancies for fear of the patient developing preeclampsia (toxemia), a disorder in pregnancy that leads to seizures and increased complications for mother and baby. However, for the past 25 years, the standard obstetric approach to maternal weight gain during pregnancy has been to follow the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommendation which stated, "Regardless of how much women weigh before they become pregnant, gaining between 26-35 pounds during pregnancy can improve the outcome of pregnancy and reduce their chances of having the pregnancy end in fetal death".
