Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
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.
2013 The Authors BJOG An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 2013 RCOG 935
Impact of BMI on maternal and neonatal outcomes
Neonatal outcomes using a condence interval of 95% are
presented in Table S2.
Discussion
Main ndings
This large retrospective study clearly demonstrates that
being overweight or obese increases the risk of adverse
maternal and neonatal outcomes. In particular, by catego-
rising women into subclassications of obesity this study
highlights a relationship between increasing BMI (from
overweight to obese class III) and increasing risk of adverse
outcomes, including gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM),
hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, caesarean section,
macrosomia, and neonatal unit admission, with women in
the highest obesity group at risk of additional adverse out-
comes, including stillbirth, a longer postnatal stay, and
wound problems following caesarean section. Importantly,
as BMI increases women were less likely to achieve a nor-
mal delivery and were less likely to breastfeed.
Current UK guidelines recommend that women with a
BMI > 30 should be offered a glucose tolerance test ante-
natally, and that those with a BMI > 35 should have addi-
tional monitoring for pre-eclampsia.
28
In the study
reported here, obese women were at an increased risk of
GDM and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and this
risk increased as BMI increased, a nding consistent with
other studies.
2,7,9,1113,21,23
However, women who were
overweight were also at increased risk of hypertensive dis-
orders of pregnancy and GDM, and therefore at risk
women who are overweight or obese (class I) may not be
offered appropriate antenatal screening under the current
guidelines. Intranatally, obesity contributes to poorer out-
comes. As found in other studies, in the current study
women who were obese were more likely to have their
labour induced, were less likely to have a vaginal delivery,
and were at increased risk of PPH.
2,8,9,11,23,29,30
To the best
of the authors knowledge, no studies to date have investi-
gated the role of intranatal management on outcomes for
women who are overweight or obese, and thus further
research is now needed to elucidate the optimal intranatal
management for women who are overweight or obese.
Postnatally, in this study, women who were obese were less
likely to breastfeed successfully, which has been reported
elsewhere.
14
This has long-term implications for health, in
particular with regard to obesity, as breastfeeding has been
associated with women losing more weight postnatally, and
breastfed babies are less likely to become obese.
31,32
In terms of neonatal outcomes, maternal BMI clearly
inuenced birthweight in the current study, with women
who were underweight being more likely to deliver a baby
of low birthweight, and women in obese class III being
more likely to have a macrosomic baby. In agreement with
T
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.
936 2013 The Authors BJOG An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 2013 RCOG
Scott-Pillai et al.
the recent study by Wloch et al., obesity was associated
with risk of wound infection among the population
reported here, with risk increasing with BMI category.
33
In
addition, in this study, women in obese class III were at
higher risk in relation to stillbirth, as has been demon-
strated in other larger studies.
8,34
Limitations and strengths
One of the major strengths of this study is the categorisa-
tion of women into all WHO BMI classication categories,
including the three categories of obesity. In fact, to our
knowledge, this is the only UK study to look at each sepa-
rate category of obesity, thereby enabling the observation
of a much clearer association in terms of risk and obesity
for several outcomes. Because of the relatively large cohort
in this study, it was possible to examine the outcomes for
each BMI category, be selective about the deliveries
included, and adjust for potentially confounding variables,
yet still obtain statistically signicant results for several
important outcomes. Another strength of this study is the
availability of BMIs for 93.3% of women, with BMIs
recorded in early pregnancy (before 16 weeks of gestation),
and therefore more likely to reect pre-pregnancy BMIs, in
line with current recommendations.
28
As with any study, there are some limitations. As a result
of the data available on the NIMATS database, this study
was only able to look at hypertensive disorders of preg-
nancy, rather than clearly distinguishing between conditions
such as pre-eclampsia or gestational hypertension, and thus
could not specically assess the individual risks for these
conditions. Although weight gained during pregnancy can
have an impact on risk,
17,29,35,36
the current study was
unable to adjust for pregnancy weight gain, as women were
not routinely re-weighed during pregnancy. Furthermore,
data were missing on NIMATS with regards to the ethnic
background of the women; however, Northern Ireland still
has a relatively homogenous white background population
(99.15%), so it is unlikely that ethnic background would
have been signicantly different between the groups,
27
mak-
ing this study generalisable to a largely metropolitan white
population. For outcomes where only a limited number of
cases are available, such as neural tube defects and stillbirth,
false negatives are possible, and the results should be inter-
preted with caution. Data was not available to take into
account clustering of births, and thus it is possible that a
woman may have contributed more than one birth over the
time period. Finally, it must be highlighted that although
the current study provides a comprehensive analysis of ante-
natal, intranatal, and neonatal outcomes across the BMI cat-
egories over an 8-year period, this has resulted in multiple
comparisons, and, given the large number of outcomes con-
sidered, further studies are needed to conrm the ndings.
Interpretation
This study infers that women who are obese are more likely
to require specialist medical care during their pregnancy, as
a result of the increased risks associated with obesity.
Women who were overweight or obese were less likely to
labour without medical intervention, and were more likely
to need a caesarean section, increasing the level of medical
input, with cost implications for intranatal care. Although
women in the highest BMI category were at the highest risk
for an adverse outcome, these women, as expected, repre-
sented the smallest group in this study (1.9%). The largest
at risk groups were women who were overweight or in
obese class I, representing 38.8% of the cohort studied. As
national guidelines currently focus primarily on women
within the highest BMI groups, and given resource alloca-
tion pressures within the health service, women who are
overweight or in obese class I may not receive additional
screening or management. Admittedly, these women may
not have the same level of risk as women with the highest
BMI; however, they are still at increased risk of several
adverse outcomes, as highlighted in this study. This provides
a challenge for healthcare professionals, as a substantial pro-
portion of women they care for will be at risk as a result of
being overweight or obese, yet may not be identied as such,
according to local policy and national guidelines.
In summary, being overweight or obese has a signicant
adverse impact on maternal and neonatal outcomes, with
risk increasing across BMI categories. These risks have
obvious implications for the management of these women
during their pregnancy, labour, and postnatal period. It is
important when planning care for women who are over-
weight or obese that resources are allocated appropriately
in order to minimise the risk factors for these women.
While current guidelines consider women who are obese,
women who are overweight are also at an increased risk,
and should therefore also be monitored closely during
pregnancy and delivery to ensure optimum outcomes for
women and their babies.
Disclosure of interests
None of the authors have any potential conicts of interest
to declare.
Contribution to authorship
DS and VAH conceived and designed the study, with input
from RS, AH, and CC. DS and VAH obtained audit com-
mittee approval and acquired the data. RS undertook the
analysis and interpretation of the data, with input from
CC, DS, and VAH. RS wrote the rst draft of the article.
AH provided obstetrical expertise. All authors participated
in the editing of this article and approved the nal version
for publication.
2013 The Authors BJOG An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 2013 RCOG 937
Impact of BMI on maternal and neonatal outcomes
Ethics approval
This study was designed as an audit, and thus did not
require ethics committee approval. Local audit committee
approval was granted. The data provided to the researchers
in this study were anonymised. No identiable data were
available to the researchers. The study was performed in an
ethical manner.
Funding
This study received no external funding.
Supporting Information
Additional Supporting Information may be found in the
online version of this article:
Table S1. Maternal outcomes by BMI category (kg/m
2
).
Table S2. Neonatal outcomes by BMI category (kg/m
2
).
&
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