Weight Loss for Most Women of Childbearing Age Means Healthier Children

Diet and nutrition advice for most obese and overweight women of childbearing age can lower health risks related with excess weight for mums and children, so says a new paper from the American Society of Nutrition and the American Dietetic Association.
This paper has been greatly welcomed as a third of American women are obese .
The long term aim of the health professionals involved in this study to lower the number of women who get pregnant whilst obese.
The state of a woman’s diet before pregnancy is criticial for the health of the future expectant mother and baby .
Obese women with existing aberrations in glucose and lipid metabolism, may experience hormonal changes in pregnancy which make for a metabolic cocktail which can lead to gestational diabetes mellitus and preeclampsia .
Babies of obese mothers are more likely to have congenital anomalies than babies of women of normal weight, which goes to suggest that maternal (obesity) changes the embryo’s state.
Other birth defects of babies of obese women include heart problems, clefts, hydrocephaly as well as abdominal wall abnormalities.