Excess Weight Raises Pregnancy Risks


Being overweight or obese increases a woman’s chances of having an extra-big baby. Excess also sharply increases a woman’s risk of pre-eclampsia, a potentially deadly pregnancy complication.

Women have more difficulty delivering very large babies, while these newborns are also at risk of suffering injury during birth, including shoulder dislocation. While women who are overweight or obese are known to run a greater risk of having very large babies and experiencing other pregnancy complications, it has been difficult to separate out the effects of a mother’s weight from those of gestational diabetes.

This led researchers to investigate whether body mass index (BMI) might influence pregnancy risks and fetal and newborn health independently of a woman’s blood sugar levels.  The study involved more than 23,000 women.  Even after controlling for women’s oral glucose tolerance test results, women with BMIs of 42 or greater were at more than triple the risk of having an excessively large baby.  In addition, their risk of having a C-section were more than doubled, and their likelihood of pre-eclampsia was 14-fold greater.

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