Aishwarya1, Arshi Praveen2, Vineeta Singh3
BACKGROUND
World health organization (WHO) declares obesity as a pandemic issue, having
high prevalence in females, especially in the childbearing age than in males.
Pregnancies complicated by obesity has been identified as early as 1945. Prepregnancy
obesity endangers both maternal and fetal well-being. Increasing body
mass index (BMI) is associated with increased adverse obstetric and fetal
outcomes. Pre-pregnancy obesity and excessive gestational weight gain are parts
of maternal obesity during pregnancy. Prenatal maternal obesity and excessive
gestational weight gain also improve placental nutrition transfer to the developing
foetus and foetal development. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the
association between early pregnancy BMI and maternal complications as well as
labour outcome.
METHODS
A prospective observational study comprising 250 antenatal women with singleton
uncomplicated pregnancies, booked at Narayan Hospital, Rohtas, South Bihar
within the first 12 weeks of gestation were selected for the study. The following
inclusion and exclusion criteria were considered. With the help of a predesigned
questionnaire, basic information including weight and height was collected in the
first check up and BMI was calculated accordingly. BMI was calculated using the
formula weight (kg)/height 2 (m2).
RESULTS
The mean age of mothers was 25.98 ± 3.92 years. Mothers who underwent
caesarean section had BMI of 27.36 ± 5.768 and for normal vaginal delivery
mothers it was 27.94 ± 6.076, whereas for mother who had undergone forceps
delivery, BMI was 30.60 ± 3.864 whereas for other assisted vaginal delivery it was
29.75 ± 7.246. There is mild correlation of BMI of mother to the birth weight of
baby. On applying regression analysis, we found mild correlation with R square
0.134. There was no correlation of BMI of mother to the hospital stay of their
children.
CONCLUSIONS
We concluded that however statistically there is no significant association between
obesity and numerous maternal and perinatal risks in obese pregnant women but
it poses a considerable challenge to the obese patient in successful completion of
pregnancy.
