Providers of maternity services in Ireland need to make provision for the rise in the number of pregnant women who are morbidly obese and who face serious health problems as a result, researchers have said.
A study published by researchers at UCD’s Centre for Human Reproduction at the Coombe hospital in Dublin showed women who are significantly overweight while pregnant suffer an “alarmingly” high rate of medical complications.
The study analysed data from 5,824 women who had babies at the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital (CWIUH) in 2007. All had their body mass index (BMI) calculated at their first antenatal visit, during the first trimester of pregnancy.
Dr Nadine Farah and her colleagues at the hospital, found that 28 per cent of the women were overweight, 13 per cent were obese and 1.6 per cent were morbidly obese. Some 54 per cent were of normal weight and 3 per cent were underweight.
The researchers said obesity in pregnancy is associated with high occurrences of medical complications and an increased requirement for obstetric intervention.
They found morbidly obese women studied had an induction rate of 42.1 per cent compared with 23.5 per cent in the normal BMI group.
Some 35.8 per cent suffered with pregnancy-induced high blood pressure compared with 9.8 per cent in the normal group.
There were also higher Caesarean section rates - 45.3 per cent compared to 14.4 per cent in the normal group.
Morbidly obese women have more complications with Caesarean sections because the risk of infection, clots and complications from anaesthesia.
Higher section rates also result in greater long-term obstetric complications, the researchers said.
Some 20 per cent of the morbidly obese women developed gestational diabetes.
Dr Farah said: “There is no national data on trends in maternal obesity but the incidence of morbid obesity in the CWIUH is high compared with the limited amount of international data.”
She said hospitals, midwives and obstetricians need to “seriously consider” the long-term impact of the rise in morbidly obese pregnant women and make provisions for appropriate equipment and resources to deal with the problem.
Research in a separate paper also found that contrary to previous studies, women do not on average put on weight in their first trimester.