Stretch marks. Varicose veins. Postpartum depression. Exhaustion.

Pregnancy does a number on your body, but happily, many of those changes are temporary. At the end, you have a beautiful baby to show for it. What you don’t know, though, is that some of the changes that your body goes through can raise the risk of other struggles later in your life.

For example, if you suffered from pre-eclampsia during your pregnancy, you may show symptoms of heart disease as many as three years sooner than those women who had normal blood pressure readings. Make sure to keep track of your blood pressure readings at every check up.

It’s hard to lose weight after giving birth but obese women who gain more than the recommended weight during pregnancy may have an even harder time losing it, according to the largest study in the U.S. to examine the relationship between weight gain and pregnancy and weight retention.

The study, which was funded by the Centers for Disease Control, charted the weight loss progress of more than 1,600 obese pregnant women. The investigators found that 75 percent of the pregnant women gained too much weight during their pregnancy and the more weight they gained, the less chances they had at taking it off after giving birth.