MONDAY, Feb. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Obese women have double the risk of having an infant with neural tube defects or other serious congenital defects, according to a position paper of the Public Affairs Committee of the Teratology Society, published online Feb. 3 in Birth Defects Research (Part A).
The committee cites studies showing obese pregnant women have higher prenatal costs, spend more time in the hospital postpartum and have infants more likely to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. These infants also have a high risk of neural tube defects and a number of other serious birth defects.
The link between maternal obesity and birth defects remains unclear, according to the group. They recommend that weight loss take place far in advance of attempts to conceive and that pregnancy should be avoided while dieting. They also recommend that mothers consider breast-feeding, which appears to have a protective effect against childhood obesity.
"The Public Affairs Committee views obesity as a pregnancy risk factor and supports the public health initiatives identified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Obesity Working Group (2004) and the research initiatives identified by the National Institutes of Health (2004)," the authors write in their paper.
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