WOMEN : STUDY LINKS OBESITY OF MOMS TO BIRTH DEFECTS.Byline: Linda Carroll Medical Tribune News Service Overweight women thinking of becoming pregnant should include weight loss in their preconception pre·con·cep·tion n. An opinion or conception formed in advance of adequate knowledge or experience, especially a prejudice or bias. Noun 1. program, suggests a new study that found that these women are more likely to give birth to infants with birth defects birth defects, abnormalities in physical or mental structure or function that are present at birth. They range from minor to seriously deforming or life-threatening. A major defect of some type occurs in approximately 3% of all births. than thinner mothers. Compared to women of average weight, obese mothers had twice the risk of giving birth to a child with neural tube defects Neural tube defects A group of birth defects that affect the backbone and sometimes the spinal chord. Mentioned in: Birth Defects , according to the study published this month in the journal Epidemiology. In these fetuses, the neural tube neural tube n. A dorsal tubular structure in the vertebrate embryo that develops into the brain and spinal cord. - a tube that eventually becomes the spinal cord spinal cord, the part of the nervous system occupying the hollow interior (vertebral canal) of the series of vertebrae that form the spinal column, technically known as the vertebral column. and brain - fails to close properly early in the pregnancy. The most severe defect is a total lack of a skull and defective brain growth. Some affected fetuses are stillborn stillborn /still·born/ (-born) born dead. still·born adj. Dead at birth. stillborn, n an infant who is born dead. stillborn born dead. , while others are born with spina bifida - a gap in the bone surrounding the spinal cord. If the hole is big enough, parts of the spinal cord stick through. Complications and chance of survival in these infants depend on the size of the hole, according to lead author Margaret Watkins, a researcher at the Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities developmental disabilities (DD), n.pl the pathologic conditions that have their origin in the embryology and growth and development of an individual. DDs usually appear clinically before 18 years of age. at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service since 1973, with headquarters in Atlanta; it was established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center. in Atlanta. Watkins and her colleagues compared data from 307 women who gave birth to infants with this type of birth defect birth defect Genetic or trauma-induced abnormality present at birth. A more restrictive term than congenital disorder, it covers abnormalities that arise during the formation of an embryo's organs and tissues and does not include those caused by diseases (e.g. to data from 2,755 mothers of healthy infants. The women were categorized according to their weight as very underweight Underweight An situation where a portfolio does not hold a sufficient amount of securities to satisfy the accepted benchmark of the portfolio's asset allocation strategy. Notes: , underweight, average weight, overweight or obese. For a 5-foot 5-inch woman, average weight varies from 118 pounds to 155 pounds. Overweight would range from over 155 pounds to 173 pounds, while obese would be any weight over 173 pounds. The Atlanta researchers found that the risk of neural tube defects rose with increasing maternal weight. Compared to average weight women, overweight mothers were 1.6 times as likely to have a baby with neural tube defects, while obese mothers were twice as likely to have an afflicted infant. Watkins and her colleagues don't yet know why babies born to overweight mothers face the risk of birth defects, but they suspect that these women may have metabolic problems that affect levels of blood sugar and folic acid. That makes a lot of sense, according to a North Carolina expert. ``Overweight women often have some problem with improper nutrition,'' said Dr. Steven R. Wells, an assistant professor in the division of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill. There is evidence that overweight women have lower levels of nutrients, including folic acid. ``Women might have some sort of folic acid deficiency,'' he said. ``We do know that folic acid status is really important when it comes to preventing neural tube defects.'' Studies have shown that by taking 0.4 milligrams of folic acid daily during pregnancy, women who already had a baby with birth defects can reduce the risk of neural tube defects in the baby they are carrying by 70 percent, Wells noted. High blood sugar levels may also be a cause of birth defects, he added. Overweight women may want to slim down before becoming pregnant, according to the North Carolina physician. ``I think it would be great if women came in preconceptionally to talk about it,'' he said. ``It's best if a woman enters pregnancy at her ideal body weight. This will reduce her risk, not only of having a child with neural tube defects, but also of developing gestational diabetes or pregnancy- related hypertension herself.'' |
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