Impact of Maternal Obesity on Pregnancy, Birth, and Infant Outcomes

Being obese during pregnancy can negatively impact the pregnancy in its entirety, delivery, and development of the fetus and newborn. Maternal obesity is associated with birth defects in addition to macrosomia, fetal death and long-term health effects on the offspring such as asthma and diabetes. Pre-pregnancy obesity and excessive weight gain also increase a woman’s risk of postpartum weight retention. Chronic conditions associated with obesity such as diabetes and hypertension increase the woman’s risk of a preterm birth. In addition, studies have shown that African-American women have a higher percentage of infants born preterm and their infants have three times the risk of their infant dying before the infant\u27s first birthday than a white infant in this community. The purpose of this research is explore the impact of obesity on pregnancy, birth and infant outcomes in a small, urban community in southeastern Wisconsin with a high rate of infant mortality for African-American infants, using data collected from 1/1/2013 to 12/31/2017. The variables that are analyzed using this data are diabetes, gestational diabetes, hypertension, preeclampsia, race, ethnicity, length of gestation, maternal age, and gestational weight gain. The data demonstrated significant relationships between obesity and diabetes, gestational diabetes, hypertension, very-low birthweight, age (35+), race, and gaining more weight than recommendations based upon body mass index. Although pregnancy is not the time to begin a weight loss program, women spend a great deal of time with their health care providers, thus is a good time to focus on long-lasting healthy behaviors. Strategies need to be developed and implemented in concert with communities to support healthy activities to attain and maintain a healthy weight before and between pregnancies to decrease the risk of co-morbidities that are associated with obesity during pregnancy, and can increase risk of adverse outcomes during pregnancy, birth and during infancy