Women who happen to be obese before they became pregnant are at twice the risk of their baby dying even before their first birthday. In fact, losing weight before trying to get pregnant and then putting on a healthy amount of weight during pregnancy reduces the risk of infant mortality, according to a study.
Lead author Dr Lisa Bodnar from the University of Pittsburgh and her team examined the records of more than 1.2 million live births in Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2011. They studied how weight gain in women before and during pregnancy impacted on infant mortality. They found that even when obese women gained optimal weight during pregnancy, their risk of infant death was double to that of women who got pregnant at a normal weight.
Experts then advocated for weight counselling before conception and during pregnancy as a possible solution for the problem. These findings will soon be published in the February issue of the journal Obesity.
