Abstract

Background: Previous studies have reported a high prevalence of excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) in women with prepregnancy BMI classified as overweight and obese. However, the joint evidence regarding GWG and prepregnancy BMI in the worldwide population has not been synthesized. Thus, this systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to estimate global and regional mean GWG and the prevalence of GWG above, within and below 2009 Institute of Medicine (IOM) guidelines. Second, we aimed to estimate global and regional prepregnancy BMI and the prevalence of BMI categories according to World Health Organization (WHO) classification.