Obese women more likely to have babies with heart defects

Overweight and obese women were about 18 percent more likely than normal weight women to have babies with heart defects, a new study shows.
For severely obese women, the risk of having babies with heart defects was 30 percent greater than normal weight women, according to the study conducted by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The study was based on data of 6,440 infants with congenital heart defects and 5,673 infants without heart defects whose mothers took part in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study.
The study took into account several important heart defect factors, including the mother’s age and race/ethnicity. Women with diabetes before they became pregnant were excluded because diabetes in the mother is a strong risk factor for infant heart defects.
“These results support previous studies, as well as provide additional evidence, that there is an association between a woman being overweight or obese before pregnancy and certain types of heart defects,” said primary study author Suzanne Gilboa, an epidemiologist at the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.
“This provides another reason for women to maintain a healthy weight. In addition to the impact on a woman’s own health and the known pregnancy complications associated with maternal obesity, the baby’s health could be at risk,” Gilboa added.
The study suggests that women who are obese and who are planning a pregnancy could benefit by working with their physicians to achieve a healthy weight before pregnancy.
The study, published in the October issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, is the largest effort ever undertaken in the United States to identify risk factors for birth defects, the CDC said.