Overweight pregnant women are 'condemning children to lifetime of obesity'

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Pregnant women who are overweight could be condemning their children to a lifetime of obesity unless they trim down while trying for a baby, U.S. experts say.

Researchers from medical centres in New York and Quebec found an obese mother's womb may send a signal to their unborn baby that encourages them to grow into a fat child and adult.

The process is more than just passing along genes that promote obesity but the scientists said they have yet to track down a biological explanation for the signal.

Women who are very overweight when pregnant may have children predisposed to obesity according to new research (Posed by models)

Robert Waterland of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston studies the effects of obesity in mice.

He speculated the signal between mother and offspring could affect the child's brain circuitry and predispose them to making more fat-storing cells.

Dr John Kral of the SUNY Downstate Medical Centre in New York led the latest study. He said his research suggests that obese women can help the next generation by losing weight just before pregnancy.

With researchers at Laval Hospital in Quebec, Dr Kral studied children of severely obese women who were born before or after their mother's weight-loss surgery.

They found that, in comparison to children born before surgery, those born afterward were far less likely to be severely obese.

In addition, those born afterward showed lower levels of blood fats and indicators of future diabetes.

Dr Kral says families typically don't change lifestyle or diet after surgery, so that doesn't explain the outcome.

Instead, he says, the surgical bypass operation made the women's bodies less efficient at digesting and absorbing food, and lowered levels of sugar and fat in the blood.

That, in turn, would reduce the number of calories delivered to the foetus to levels like those provided by a normal-weight mother, he said.

Once scientists identify the obesity signal, they may be able to recommend ways to suppress it, perhaps through diet or behavioral strategies.

In the meantime, experts say obese women should avoid pregnancy until they lose weight as obesity in pregnancy raises the risk of complications like diabetes, caesarean deliveries and stillbirth.

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