The growing epidemic of obesity in our society has become a major public health issue, with serious social and psychological consequences in addition to the physical health implications. Obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally with a similar rise in prevalence among women in the reproductive age group. This has critical consequences for fetal and maternal health in the antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum periods. The aims of this study were to summarise the implications of maternal obesity on maternal, fetal and neonatal health and to recommend good practice guidelines on the management of this problem. The authors highlight the need for good quality interventional research on maternal obesity while identifying avenues with potential scope for future research in this context.
Post-partum clinical presentation with seizures and focal neurological deficit has a wide differential diagnosis. Two cases of the rare condition Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome (PRES) associated with pregnancy are presented with complete recovery following multidisciplinary care. One of the cases was associated with Factor VII deficiency in pregnancy and the other with twin gestation and psoas abcess.
The treatment of phenylketonuria, an inherited metabolic disorder, is one of the great success stories of the past 40 years. Prior to 1963, virtually all women with the disease who were of childbearing age suffered brain damage and bore few, if any, children. The success of newborn screening has resulted in a large number of women with phenylketonuria worldwide who are now of childbearing age. The offspring of women with phenylketonuria who remain untreated during pregnancy face a poor outcome. Optimising the care of these women prior to conception and throughout the pregnancy is therefore imperative to prevent significant fetal damage and is essential if the benefits to one generation attained by the universal screening programme are not to be lost to the next generation.
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