Obesity and reproductive health

Diet and IVF pilot study: Short-term weight loss improves pregnancy rates in overweight/obese women undertaking IVF

“…This indicates that the provision of standard healthy lifestyle advice with or without structured individualised advice or active follow‐up was sufficient to achieve some healthy changes in lifestyle even when significant weight loss was not observed. Women participating in ART may be motivated to achieve lifestyle change, and adoption of healthy lifestyle practices may be more successful at a preconception stage because of increased motivation and receptivity 14,15 . This is an important life stage for focusing public health messages, highlighting routine preconception lifestyle counselling as crucial for all ART‐associated births.…”

Obesity in pregnancy: a study of the impact of maternal obesity on NHS maternity services

“…However, they recognised that obesity‐related initiatives in the public health arena tended to focus on associated morbidities and neglected family planning as an issue. Nankervis et al 24 discuss how the attention on the health burden of obesity has focused on all‐cause mortality and neglected the effects on the reproductive system and outcomes of pregnancy. They stated that solutions to the problem are inevitably going to be multifaceted and costly, but they suggest that as part of general public health effort to tackle obesity, pre‐pregnancy counselling should be carried out for all women and every effort to intervene should be made in those women who are overweight or obese prior to the pregnancy being established.…”

Indigenous perinatal and neonatal outcomes: A time for preventive strategies

“…16 Obesity increases the risk of congenital abnormalities, miscarriage, late-term fetal loss and antenatal complications such as pre-eclampsia, diabetes and operative delivery. 17 Periconception folate significantly reduces neural tube defects (NTD), 18 and supplementation recommended for women planning pregnancy or capable of conception is especially pertinent for those women of diabetogenic risk because of higher rates of NTD. In a Western Australia study, the NTD rate for Indigenous babies was twice that of non-Indigenous babies.…”

“…The change of traditional diets to energy enriched carbohydrate diets and decreasing physical exercise, has lead to increasing rates of obesity being reported for the Indigenous population with changes from low BMI to high BMI strongly age related in Aboriginal women 16 . Obesity increases the risk of congenital abnormalities, miscarriage, late‐term fetal loss and antenatal complications such as pre‐eclampsia, diabetes and operative delivery 17 …”