Being overweight increases the risk of pregnancy complications regardless of a woman’s country of birth: study

Obesity increases health complications during pregnancy, including miscarriage, premature birth and preeclampsia. Researchers found that being overweight during pregnancy increases this risk regardless of the woman’s country of birth.

The latest study by scientists from Linköping University and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden examined the risk of complications faced by overweight pregnant women, both those born in Sweden and those who moved there.

“We know that overweight and obesity are associated with many complications during pregnancy and childbirth in women born in Sweden. Therefore, we wanted to check whether inequalities in pregnancy complications among women born in different countries can, to some extent, be explained by differences in body structure. If you know that health inequalities exist, you want to find out why this is so that in the next step you can do something about it. do with them,” said Pontus Henriksson, who led the study in press release.

Researchers assessed nearly two million pregnancies and focused on eight significant complications that could affect the mother or baby during pregnancy and delivery. Complications studied include those related to pregnancy, including preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and neonatal mortality in the first year of life. They also looked at premature births, extremely premature births and low Apgar scores, which assess a newborn’s vitality. The researchers also weighed the risks of having a huge or petite baby in terms of the length of pregnancy.

The arrangements published in The Lancet Public Health suggest that promoting a fit weight can potentially prevent pregnancy complications for all women.

Scientists looked at how many pregnancy complications, such as gestational diabetes, could be prevented if all women started their pregnancies at a fit weight.

“For example, we concluded that about half of all cases of gestational diabetes can be prevented. This applies to both women born in Sweden and women born abroad,” said Maryam Shirvanifar, first author of the study.

The study also found that the effect of body weight on these complications varies significantly; for example, high body weight is particularly associated with an increased risk of gestational diabetes compared to other pregnancy-related problems.