Weight does Matter! A Study of Effect of Obesity on Pregnancy and its Outcome

Abstract

Objectives: To analyze the significant risk associated with obesity and its consequences on obstetrics management and perinatal outcome. Materials and methods:A prospective study was carried out in the Department of Obstetric and Gynecology, MGM Medical College and My Hospital, Indore. The study enrolled 200 pregnant women with body mass index (BMI) >25 and equal number of women with normal BMI (18-24.9) as control.Results: A total of 76 (38%) out of 200 pregnant women were overweight, 70 (35%) were obese type 1 (BMI: 30-34.9), 44 (22%) had BMI (35-39.9) and 10 (5%) had BMI >40. In comparison to normal BMI pregnant women, women with BMI >25 had significant risk of gestation hypertension (p = 0.004), pre-eclampsia (p = 0.04) gestational diabetes mellitus and shoulder dystocia (p = 0.021), cesarean section (0.0001), induced labor (0.0001) and decreased incidence of VBAC (p = 0.037) with postoperative wound infection. Neonates of these women were mostly macrosomic (p = 0.021) and had high incidence of shoulder dystocia. Conclusion:High maternal BMI at booking is associated with increased risk of pregnancy complications. Achieving a normal BMI prior to conception with the institution of healthy eating and exercise regimens may represent an ideal option.

Maternal obesity - Risks and outcome

“…This frequency was almost 5.16 times higher. Our study correlated with many studies by Deve A et al [7], Heather E. Robinson et al [8] and Ramos et al [1] who reported an incidence of 18.9 -22.6% and 16% respectively.…”

“…We observed that, labour induction was more in obese group (26.6%). When compared to control group (4.98%), which is in accordance with other studies [5,7]. The risk of induction among the obese women was increased almost 5.3 fold.…”

“…In our population, obese group exhibited a higher risk of developing gestational diabetes (15.95 %), when compared to normal BMI group (1.99%), i.e. 8 folds risk increase for gestational diabetes among obese women., which is in accordance with other studies like Gross et al [9] (6.5%), Ehrenberg et at [10] (8%), Ramos et al [1] (14%), whereas studies like Dave et al [7] reported incidence of GDM is low (2%), in contrast with other studies. 5): In our study, antepartum complications like placental abnormalities such as placenta previa and placental abruption occurred equally among obese women and normal weight women.…”

“…In control group major reason for induction was past dates (40%). This is in consistent with Dave A et al [7] and Weiss et al [6].…”

“…Dasgupta et al [5] showed an incidence of hypertensive disorders as 17%. Dave et al [7] reported an incidence of hypertension is 22%.…”