Obese during pregnancy is high risk for babies

Submitted by shelbydburns Tue 04/12/2011

For moms who are obese during the first months of pregnancy, their babies face a higher death risk up until the age of one year. A new British study looked at 41,000 pregnancies of singletons at five different maternity wards from 2003 to 2005 to come to this conclusion.

The risk of the baby dying in utero, miscarriage or stillbirth (fetal death) or dying up to one year after birth (infant death) was twice as high among women who had a BMI of 30 or more, the clinical definition of obese.

“There are likely to be a number of reasons why obesity is associated with fetal and infant death and we don’t yet know the full story,” said study co-author Judith Rankin, a professor of maternal and perinatal epidemiology at Newcastle University. “For example, there is an increased risk of high blood pressure or diabetes developing during pregnancy. Understanding the risks associated with obesity is helpful for health-care professionals caring for pregnant women, so that additional monitoring can be provided as necessary.”

“What’s key is that women should be helped to achieve a health weight before they become pregnant or after the baby is born. Our research shows this will give the baby the best possible start in life,” concluded Rankin.

Source: Human Reproduction, Bloomberg Businessweek

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