What happens when obese women lose weight before conception?

 

In a bid to determine how weight loss prior to pregnancy affects maternal and fetal health a new Michigan Medicine clinical trial are now enrolling participants.

 

It has already been established that a woman’s overall health before conception can impact her pregnancy and the health of her fetus.
“Half of all pregnant women in the United States are overweight or obese, increasing the mother’s risk of pregnancy complications, including gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, fetal anomalies, premature birth, C-section and fetal demise,” says Amy Rothberg, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of endocrinology at Michigan Medicine.
“The infants of these mothers also carry a lifetime risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.”
What Rothberg is now doing is leading a new clinical trial to investigate what happens when obese women lose weight before conception.
“Evidence proposes that the origins of obesity start at the earliest stages of human development: while still in the womb and during early infancy,” Rothberg says.
“A mother’s nutritional, metabolic and behavioral status, such as pre-pregnancy weight and diet before and during pregnancy, may permanently influence the metabolic, endocrine and immune function of the fetus well into adulthood.”

- letgoonline.com.ng