Prospective Relationships between Health Cognitions and Excess Gestational Weight Gain in a Cohort of Healthy and Overweight Pregnant Women

Abstract Background Excess gestational weight gain (GWG) contributes to long-term obesity in mothers and children. To guide the tailoring of interventions to prevent excess GWG, a better understanding is needed of the lifestyle-related health cognitions that influence women’s attempts to manage GWG. Objective To examine the relationship between health cognitions and excess GWG for women who enter pregnancy at a healthy weight (body mass index