Research conducted on obese women has emphasized the potential risks they incur during their first pregnancy.
These women had increased rates of eclampsia and premature babies as opposed to other women with normal weight values, running twice as much a risk of giving birth to babies who are underweight.
The study revealed that 18.8% of these overweight mothers gave birth to babies under 2.5kg, while with healthier women only 10% of the babies were underweight.
It was also found that overweight babies were more numerous with obese mothers than healthier ones.
The same was true with the risk of pre-eclampsia, which increased accordingly to the weight the women put on, and was more likely to occur in first time pregnancies.
The increase of the pre-eclampsia causes apprehension in the field of medicine, for it is a serious illness during pregnancy, and can cause the death of the mother and the baby.
Premature babies are also endangered for they can incur in brain damage, breathing problems and are more prone to infection.
Doctors think that these problems occur with obesity due to the higher insulin resistance as opposed to healthier women. This is when the insulin in the body is unable to sufficiently breakdown the sugar in the body; this can eventually lead to pre-eclampsia, diabetes, macrosomia or bigger babies.
Another problem with obese women during pregnancy is that there is higher rate of caesarean sections and as a consequence a longer stay in hospitals.
These problems also occur with women who put on a lot of weight during pregnancy[pregnancy weight gain]; therefore plans must be integrated to put forth a correct weight management during the pregnancy period in order to curb this tendency.
“The study revealed that 18.8% of these overweight mothers gave birth to babies under 2.5kg.”
“It was also found that overweight babies were more numerous with obese mothers than healthier ones.”
So overweight mothers might give birth to an overweight or an underweight baby. Which is it???