According to yourfertility.org.au, “if you are trying to get pregnant, or intend to start trying, know that being overweight can affect your chances of conceiving and having a healthy baby.” The site notes that losing a few pounds before getting pregnant can help. It also takes longer for obese women to become pregnant, and when they do get pregnant, they face a higher risk of complications such as miscarriage, diabetes and premature birth.

How to understand if you are a good weight for pregnancy? First of all, the most important thing is to calculate your body mass index (BMI). A body mass index between 19 and 24 is considered to be expected. If your body mass index is less than 19, it can signify being underweight. If your BMI is between 25 and 29, it is considered overweight.

There are some additional facts about obesity and infertility:

• Overweight or obese women have more difficulty becoming pregnant than their normal-weight counterparts. They are more likely to take more than a year to conceive than women of healthy weight.
• The risk for pre-eclampsia—a condition in pregnancy characterised by a sharp spike in blood pressure and swelling in the face, hands and feet—is doubled for overweight women and tripled for obese women.
• Overweight women are twice as likely to experience gestational diabetes; for obese women, the risk is eight times higher than for those who are not overweight or obese.
• Babies born to obese women are more likely than babies of normal-weight women to be significant for their age, need neonatal intensive care or have a congenital abnormality.