It is believed that in the UK, 1 in 6 pregnant women are obese, but fears have now been raised that a mother’s weight can have a significant impact on the health of their unborn child, with pregnant mothers putting their babies at risk of a range of illnesses and defects.
A review of 39 separate medical studies, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has shown that their babies are twice as likely to suffer from spina bifida, where the spinal cord is incomplete. There is a 30% greater chance that they will have a heart defect and the possibility of being born with a cleft palate increases by 20%. A separate study has also shown that over the past 10 years, deaths during pregnancy from heart disease have doubled, mainly due to an increase in obesity amongst expectant mothers, and that doctors regularly miss warning signs for heart problems during pregnancy.
The review was published just as scientists and experts called on the Government to launch a programme targeted at women of child-bearing age, as well as identifying risk factors during pregnancy to ensure early diagnosis of heart problems in mothers-to-be. The president of the Royal Society of Medicine’s Obstetrics and Gynaecology section, Professor Phillip Steer, commented: “We've had warnings on cigarette packets telling us that smoking can harm the unborn baby as well as the mother. But there seems to be little effort made to warn mothers about the risk obesity poses to mother and child."
Another expert in the field, Dr. Otend-Ntim, who is president of the RSM’s Maternity section, pointed out that by the time many women fell pregnant, the damage had already been done. He went on to say: "Government obesity campaigns are not paying enough attention to one of the most important groups in the population. Once an obese woman is pregnant, she and her baby already run a greater risk to their health. Obesity problems begin before conception and pregnancy is certainly not the time to start trying to lose weight."