Health News : Prepregnancy Obesity And Gestational Weight Gain Influence Risk Of Preterm Birth

Prepregnancy Obesity And Gestational Weight Gain Influence Risk Of Preterm Birth
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admin on 10/02/2010 16:53:00
 
A baby born at less than 37 weeks of gestation is considered preterm. This
occurs more often among black women than white women and is a leading cause of
infant morbidity and mortality in the United States. Obesity is associated with
intrauterine infections, systematic inflammation, dyslipidemia, and
hyperinsulinemia, all of which may increase the risk of preterm birth.
In order to investigate the relations of preterm birth with prepregnancy obesity
and gestational weight gain, the BUSM researchers used data from the Slone
Epidemiology Center’s Black Women’s Health Study. They compared mothers of
more than 1,000 infants born three or more weeks early with mothers of more than
7,000 full-term infants. They examined two types of preterm birth: that
indicated for medical reasons (medically-indicated) and that occurring for no
known reason (spontaneous).
The researchers found that obesity increased the risk of medically-indicated
preterm birth and very early spontaneous preterm birth (