Many newspapers have reported on new official guidelines for how women can manage their weight before, during and after pregnancy. The advice comes from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). The importance of the guidelines is borne out by figures suggesting that more pregnant women than ever are overweight or obese

Teenage mothers are “more likely to give birth prematurely and have underweight babies”, says The Daily Telegraph. This news is based on research that looked at records of babies born to mothers aged between 14 and 29 in the North West of England. The study found that teenage mothers aged 14 to 17 were more likely to have preterm babies than older mothers, with the risk being greater for teenagers who had their second child before the age of 17.

“Providing vitamin supplements to poorly nourished women during pregnancy may reduce the risk of them giving birth to underweight babies,” The Independent reported. The news story is based on research in 405 pregnant women from a low-income area in East London, some of whom were deficient in key micronutrients, such as iron, folate and thiamin.

“Aerobic exercise during pregnancy ‘produces lighter babies’,” reported The Times . It said researchers have found that women who trained on exercise bikes for 40 minutes up to five times a week had babies who were 143g lighter on average than babies of women who did not exercise. This relatively small study used a good study design to investigate this question, randomly assigning 98 pregnant women to a personalised cycling programme or a group that did not cycle