A mother’s obesity can harm her baby

Doctors may have underestimated the threat posed to unborn babies if their mothers are overweight, according to new research.

Doctors may have underestimated the threat posed to unborn babies if their mothers are overweight, according to new research. A study of more than 2,000 children born to mothers suffering from pregnancy-related diabetes found that the level of obesity was the “main predicating factor” for defects of the heart, kidney and urinary tract.The researchers, at the Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona, said women should be aware how their weight could affect their unborn child.Doctors have known since the 1960s that women with diabetes before pregnancy have a higher-than-normal risk of giving birth to babies with congenital abnormalities.High blood sugar levels passing through the placenta to the developing baby are known to cause defects in the crucial early few weeks while organs are forming.In women with “gestational diabetes” – the variety of the disease that usually appears in the second half of pregnancy – the risk of birth defects was thought to be less serious.A team led by Dr Rosa Corcoy studied the links between the blood sugar levels of 2,060 mothers with gestational diabetes and defects in their babies. They expected to find a strong link between the severity of the diabetes and damage to the babies.But instead they found the mother’s degree of obesity was the most important influence on birth defects.”We found that obesity was the main predictor for congenital abnormalities in the babies,” said Dr Corcoy. “It was most commonly linked to defects of the heart.”The findings are published in the journal Diabetologia.One explanation for the link is that obesity is an indicator of energy and nutrients available to a baby in the womb. The excess of these nutrients, and not the excess of blood sugar, may be connected to malformations.Dr Corcoy said women planning a family should consider their weight and its possible effects. But she added that it was not advisable for a woman to lose weight quickly before pregnancy.(Source: Telegraoh Health UK, July 2004)