Objective: To test the contributions of life-style and stress to postpartum weight gain after controlling for sociodemographic and reproductive influences.
Design: Longitudinal mail survey with retrospective data on gestational weight gain and prospective data on postpartum weight gain.
Setting: Multicounty community in the midwestern United States.
Participants: After deleting from the sample women who became pregnant again, had confounding medical conditions, or had missing weight data, the sample consisted of 88 predominantly white mothers at 6 months after childbirth and 75 predominantly white mothers at 18 months after childbirth.
Main outcome measures: Weight gain at 6 and 18 months after childbirth.
Results: Maternal race and gestational weight gain accounted for significant amounts of variance in 6-month and 18-month postpartum weight gain. Neither life-style nor perceived stress contributed significantly to predicting postpartum weight gains. Gestational weight gain was the most important predictor of postpartum weight gain.
Conclusions: Given the contribution of gestational weight gain to postpartum weight gain, further study is needed of high gestational weight gain.