Abstract
Purpose: This study was to investigate the correlation among body weight, body composition, delivery method, parity, weight gain during pregnancy and obesity before pregnancy of patients who received postpartum care in one oriental medicine hospital. Mothods: From September 1, 2009 to August 31, 2008, we included 34 postpartum patients who had body composition analysis when admission and discharge among 47 postpartum patients who were hospitalized and received postpartum care in $\bigcirc\bigcirc$ University $\bigcirc\bigcirc$ Hospital. We used SPSS 14.0 for window to test for statistical significance. Results: After postpartum care, body weight and BMI of mothers was significantly decreased and the weight loss was almost body water. Mothers who had cesarean section had relatively severe edema and mothers who had been overweight before pregnancy had high BMI, body fat and abdominal fat. After delivery, body fat percentage was increased highly and body weight retention lasted long in mothers who had gained over 12.5kg during pregnancy. Conclusion: Living habits including diet has a significant effect on weight change of mothers during early puerperium, therefore it is required to teach mothers about breast-feeding, diet, and exercise to help their weight return to normal.
