Health risks of obese mothers-to-be
Health risks of obese mothers-to-be
Obese or overweight women are more likely to develop life-threatening health complications during pregnancy, research has revealed.
Their risk of gestational diabetes was increased four-fold and they were also three times as likely to have a stillbirth; premature delivery, or a newborn requiring neonatal care as women of normal weight.
Consequently overweight women are more likely to need costly, specialist medical care when pregnant.
"Obesity rates have doubled in the last 30 years. This large-scale study clearly demonstrates that being overweight or obese during pregnancy increases the risk of adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes," said Dr Valerie Holmes from the Centre for Public Health at Queen's University Belfast, who co-wrote the report.
The team from Queen's University and the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust monitored more than 30,000 mothers-to-be over an eight-year period. For the first time women were categorised according to the World Health Organisation body mass index (BMI) classifications - underweight; normal weight; overweight; plus three obese sub-categories.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/health-risks-of-obese-motherstobe-29156711.html
Maybe we could ship bloomberg over there on a missionary tour.
