Pregnant women who lose weight may prevent excessive baby fat

EXCLUSIVE: OVERWEIGHT women who trim down before pregnancy can help reduce the risk of their baby being born with excessive fat and inflammation.

OVERWEIGHT women who trim down before pregnancy can help reduce the risk of their baby being born with excessive fat and inflammation.

Almost half of Australian women of child-bearing age are overweight, which can affect their fertility and, once they are pregnant, it could even affect the future health of the offspring.

For the first time, University Hospital Geelong researchers have found a link between a mother’s weight before pregnancy and their baby’s body fat and inflammation at birth.

Lead researcher and Barwon Health paediatrician Dr Kate McCloskey said these two factors were thought to underpin many of the complications of obesity and metabolic syndrome: a cluster of risk factors that increase your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke.

Lead researcher and Barwon Health paediatrician Dr Kate McCloskey with her two-month-old baby Megan. Picture: David Crosling

While they don’t yet know what this will mean for the infants involved in the study, increased fat at birth is associated with a higher risk of childhood obesity.

“Cardiovascular disease is known to have foetal origins,” Dr McCloskey said.

“There is an idea that you are set up somehow from in-utero to make you more susceptible to metabolic syndrome.”

A third of the 1000 women from the Barwon Infant study were overweight or obese.

By measuring their blood in the third trimester they found that they were more likely to have increased inflammation compared with pregnant women of a healthy weight.

Lead researcher and Barwon Health paediatrician Dr Kate McCloskey with her two-month-old baby Megan. Picture: David Crosling

Lead researcher and Barwon Health paediatrician Dr Kate McCloskey with her two-month-old baby Megan. Picture: David Crosling

Their babies were also more likely to have increased inflammation in their cord blood and excessive fat at birth. Research in mice has also shown the inflammatory changes pre­sent in the offspring of mothers who were fed high-fat diets can increase with each generation.

The findings, published in Pediatric Obesity, have a serious public health message for women planning a pregnancy.

“Women are very good at trying to optimise their health during pregnancy; they quit smoking, they don’t drink, but optimising your health before getting pregnant is a new area,” Dr McCloskey said.

“And our findings suggest this will have an impact on minimising excessive fat and inflammation in your baby.”

The Barwon Infant Study is supported by the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Barwon Health and Deakin University and has received a range of funding, including from the National Health and Medical Research Council.

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