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Moms who go to work after having a baby gain excess weight faster
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Scientists have managed to trace the relationship between young mothers going to work and their excess weight. The study looked at women from countries with low and medium living standards and financial security.
Why do mothers who go back to work after giving birth quickly gain extra pounds?
UN specialists developed a comprehensive program, which was called Millennium Development Goals. The goal of creating such a program was to improve people's health and combat poverty in poor countries. Among the planned tasks was also providing jobs for women with small children.
As practice has shown, employment of young mothers was successfully implemented: women began to leave maternity leave at a time convenient for them, and successfully continued their careers. But certain problems arose that were not previously foreseen: women, due to stress and workload of their main and domestic work, began to be less attentive to their health and appearance. "If we take into account all the possible consequences of obesity, then the alarm must be sounded as early as possible," American scientists said.
The experts conducted a study involving women from 38 countries with low and medium living standards. In total, more than 160 thousand working mothers in the average age category from 18 to 49 years were involved in the experiment. Their youngest children were under five years old at that time. The scientists were interested in such aspects as the type of profession, level of education, age, marital status, and the total number of children the mother had.
As a result, it was noted that working mothers, officially employed, had a 30% higher risk of developing obesity. However, there are nuances: this indicator depends on the specific country. For example, in Ethiopia it is 4.3%, and in Egypt - about 80%.
Mothers with insufficient education gained excess weight faster than their more educated peers.
Among the additional factors, scientists identified the following:
- When women went to work, they began to earn more money and, accordingly, began to buy more food;
- constant workload triggers the emergence of unhealthy eating habits, snacking on fast food and processed foods;
- Due to their constant busy schedules, women do not find time “for themselves” – for example, to do basic exercises.
So, is it worth going back to work as soon as possible after giving birth? Weigh up all the pros and cons. Of course, a few extra pounds after the birth of a child are considered a completely natural phenomenon, but in this situation everything is more complicated: according to scientists, women are subjected to a strong stress load, as a result of which their weight increases rapidly. And excess pounds, in turn, provoke the emergence of serious health problems.
The scientists published a detailed report on the work they did in the International Journal of Behavioral Activity.
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