US researchers have calculated that 71% of congenital anomalies in children of obese women are attributable to maternal diabetes.
They looked at weight, pregestational diabetes and major congenital anomalies in 42,000 singleton pregnancies at various time intervals between 1991 and 2004.
With time, average maternal weight, BMI, the proportion of obese mothers and the prevalence of pregestational diabetes increased – as did the prevalence of major anomalies (from 0.43% to 0.84%). However, multivariate analysis showed that pregestational diabetes was associated with an almost fourfold higher risk of congenital abnormalities.Â
SOURCE: Obstet Gynecol 2009;114:1179, 1170
Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha