Effect of body mass index on maternal outcome in pregnancy

Background: Maternal body mass index during pregnancy is one of the important parameter which gives us the clue regarding maternal complications. The objectives of this study were to study distribution of antenatal patients in underweight, normal, overweight (and obese) categories according to booking BMI, to examine the association of BMI with obstetric outcomes in singleton pregnancies.Methods: This prospective Study was conducted over a period of 1 year from July 2019 to June 2020 on antenatal women attending OPD in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in LLRM Medical College. The enrolled patients were divided into three equal groups (n=50) according to their BMI. In all the groups obstetric outcome was assessed.Results: In normal BMI group 12% patients had preterm vaginal delivery. While In group of underweight patients 32% patients landed up in preterm delivery which has three times higher incidence. In overweight group 48% patients had caesarean section, while in normal BMI group it is only18% patients i.e. 3 times higher caesarean rate in high BMI group. 10% of patients belonging to normal BMI group needed induction of labor while 26% of patients in overweight group required induction .Thus incidence of induction of labor is more than double in overweight group. While only 16% patients had PPH in normal BMI group, 44% patients had PPH in overweight group i.e. three times higher. The frequency of preeclampsia was 22% in the overweight category and <1% in the normal group.Conclusions: Higher prevalence of complications to the mother when BMI is not in the recommended normal range.