LIMIT: Limiting weight gain in overweight and obese women during pregnancy to improve health outcomes: a randomised trial.

This trial is currently recruiting.

Obesity is a significant health issue for women during pregnancy and childbirth, with estimates suggesting that 35% of women aged between 25 and 35 years are overweight or obese. There are well documented risks associated with obesity during pregnancy and childbirth. Maternal complications include hypertensive conditions and pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, infection, thromboembolic events, need for induction of labour, caesarean section and perinatal death. Infants of mothers who are overweight or obese are more likely to be macrosomic, require admission to the neonatal intensive care unit, be born preterm, have a congenital anomaly, and to require treatment for jaundice or hypoglycaemia. While there is an extensive body of literature related to defining the problems and potential complications associated with obesity during pregnancy and childbirth, there is a lack of information available related to effective interventions that may be implemented to improve maternal, fetal and infant health outcomes. : The aims of this randomised controlled trial are to assess whether the implementation of a package of dietary and lifestyle advice to overweight and obese women during pregnancy to limit weight gain is effective in improving maternal, fetal and infant health outcomes.