Being overweight or obese increases a woman's chances of having an extra-big baby, even after the effects of diabetes during pregnancy are taken into account.
Being overweight or obese increases a woman's chances of having an extra-big baby, even after the effects of diabetes during pregnancy are taken into account. Excess weight also sharply increases a woman's risk of pre-eclampsia, a complication of pregnancy.
Women have more difficulty delivering very large babies, while these newborns are also at risk of suffering injury during birth, including shoulder dislocation. While women who are overweight or obese are known to have a higher risk of having very large babies and experiencing other pregnancy complications, it has been difficult to separate out the effects of a mother's weight from those of diabetes during pregnancy (gestational diabetes).
To investigate whether body mass index (BMI) - a standard measure of weight in relation to height used to gauge how fat or thin a person is - might influence pregnancy risks and fetal and newborn health, independently of a woman's blood sugar levels, researchers studied 23,316 women from 15 different medical centers in nine different countries. All had undergone an oral glucose tolerance test, which is used to identify women with, or at risk for, pregnancy-related diabetes; at that time, their height and weight were measured too.
The researchers then used statistical techniques to control for women's oral glucose tolerance test results. Even after this adjustment, they found that the women with BMIs of 42 or greater, denoting severe obesity (for example, a 5-foot-5-inch tall woman weighing at least 250 pounds / 113 kg), had triple the risk of having an excessively large baby, compared to the thinnest women in the study, who had BMIs of 22.6 or less (a 5' 5" woman weighing less than 138 pounds / 63 kg). The heaviest women's risk of having a C-section were more than doubled, while their likelihood of pre-eclampsia was 14-fold higher than for the leanest women. However, the heaviest women's risk for delivering a preterm baby was actually cut in half.
The above findings show that a high maternal BMI, independent of mother's blood sugar levels, is strongly associated with a higher risk of pregnancy complications, in particular those related to big babies and pre-eclampsia.
Women have more difficulty delivering very large babies, while these newborns are also at risk of suffering injury during birth, including shoulder dislocation. While women who are overweight or obese are known to have a higher risk of having very large babies and experiencing other pregnancy complications, it has been difficult to separate out the effects of a mother's weight from those of diabetes during pregnancy (gestational diabetes).
To investigate whether body mass index (BMI) - a standard measure of weight in relation to height used to gauge how fat or thin a person is - might influence pregnancy risks and fetal and newborn health, independently of a woman's blood sugar levels, researchers studied 23,316 women from 15 different medical centers in nine different countries. All had undergone an oral glucose tolerance test, which is used to identify women with, or at risk for, pregnancy-related diabetes; at that time, their height and weight were measured too.
The researchers then used statistical techniques to control for women's oral glucose tolerance test results. Even after this adjustment, they found that the women with BMIs of 42 or greater, denoting severe obesity (for example, a 5-foot-5-inch tall woman weighing at least 250 pounds / 113 kg), had triple the risk of having an excessively large baby, compared to the thinnest women in the study, who had BMIs of 22.6 or less (a 5' 5" woman weighing less than 138 pounds / 63 kg). The heaviest women's risk of having a C-section were more than doubled, while their likelihood of pre-eclampsia was 14-fold higher than for the leanest women. However, the heaviest women's risk for delivering a preterm baby was actually cut in half.
The above findings show that a high maternal BMI, independent of mother's blood sugar levels, is strongly associated with a higher risk of pregnancy complications, in particular those related to big babies and pre-eclampsia.
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