Overweight mums ‘have more pregnancy issues’

OBESE or overweight women are more likely to develop life-threatening health complications during pregnancy, research has shown.

Their risk of gestational diabetes was increased four-fold and they were also three times as likely as women of normal weight to have a stillbirth, premature delivery, or a newborn requiring neonatal care. Consequently, overweight women are more likely to need specialist medical care when pregnant.

The team from the Centre for Public Health at Queen’s University Belfast and the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust monitored more than 30,000 mothers-to-be over an eight-year period.

Dr Dale Spence from the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Queen’s said new guidelines were needed to manage the care for overweight women.