Pre-pregnancy body mass index and foeto-maternal outcomes

Ziel: To evaluate the effect of pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) on the foeto-maternal outcomes.

Methodik: We retrospectively analyzed data collected between 2004 and 2008 (5 years) in a tertiary center for foeto-maternal medicine in Northeast Italy about single pregnancies. We considered for the study the first 700 deliveries of every year, excluding those with incomplete files or absence of per-pregnancy BMI value. BMI categories are based on WHO classification.

Ergebnis: 3284 single pregnancies were included. Overweight and obesity have been increasing during the study period but without statistical significance (15% in 2004 and 18% in 2008) (p n.s.). After adjustment for other known risk factors in the multivariate logistic regression models, over-weight and obesity resulted to be risk factors for pre-eclampsia, large for gestational age babies, need of newborn oxygen therapy, and neonatal respiratory distress syndrome.

Schlussfolgerung: Even if a wide range of studies have assessed a role of BMI on pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia, only limited data is available about the related foetal outcomes. In our study we found BMI that, independently from other risk factors such as glucose metabolism alterations during pregnancy, is a risk factor for neonatal respiratory function impairment, probably due to a lipid alteration in infants and their mothers as previously hypothesized in the literature.

cesarean section - neonatal RDS - pre-pregnancy BMI