"women who are obese at the time of conception have a much higher incidence of birth defects" so saith R4 this am.

[CountessDracula]

A study of 10,000 obese mothers and 5.000 non-obese mothers apparently showed a significantly higher incidence of certain defects, specifically they said Spina Bifida, heart problems and missing toes, fingers etc.

More info here

"Children born to obese women had a 40 percent increased risk for heart defects and more than double the odds of spina bifida."

Have women on mn found this to be the case?

If it is actually diabetes causing the birth defects, then surely it is the uncontrolled blood sugars causing them, rather than the obesity itself?

This has been known for a long long time (in fact, till home blood glucose monitoring, women with diabetes were advised not to have children at all).

Haven't read the link, will do so now.

Yep, read the article, take away the diabetes (and possibly uncontrolled bgs) then the rate of defects went down, so I agree with Eleusis, it's actually the diabetes causing the problem, not the obesity.

Misleading, misleading.....

If you had a healthy diet you wouldn't be obese surely? Unless of course you had a medical condition.

think it's a no brainer that what you do to yourself will eventually affect your genes. There seems to be cognitive disconnect with food and health.

I was 7 stone BMI 19 when I conceived dd. She had a heart defect.

I have definitely read somewhere before that spina bifida is more common in cases where the mother is obese at conception, because the RDA for folic acid for early pregnancy is not enough for larger women.
I was no sylph when pregnant with dd and I both took a supplement and ate a folic acid-rich diet because of that.

rebelmum - I have an extraordinarily healthy diet and I am overweight as are all my family. I literally don't know anyone who eats as healthily as I do...

Recent studies suggest weight has a minimum genetic factor of 25% and some studies suggest up to 75%. There's just a huge amount that's unknown about causes of obesity.

You might be overweight but not obese, in which case you would be fine imho. As long as you eat healthily and exercise and have no identified condition. I think drs get caught-up with labelling obese rather than assessing lifestyle.

My neighbour who is fit and eats well but naturally has a bigger build was mortified to be labelled obese and I just thought that their measuring is not best. It was obvious to anyone who looked at her that she was perfectly fine.

I do think common sense should prevail.

Woo hoo yet another story designed to make mums of children born with any kind of problem feel responsible for it!

Surely it is designed to minimise risk by educating people

Sometimes bad things happen and it isn't always someone's fault.

of course
But you can minismise risk hence the anti drinking and smoking during pregnancy and conception advice, in what way is it different?

Surely if they have evidence that obesity at time of conception increases risk then they have a duty to tell people?

The problem I have with these types of studies is that they are VERY subjective. How can anyone be certain what the causes of specific conditions are?

My child has a condition that was a 1 in 100 000 chance of happening, which seems like good odds, I didn't smoke, drink or am obese but it still happened.

Perhaps if we seal ourselves up in a special germ free capsule maybe then we might not have any problems, but then again we might!

loobeeloo

you are right

So do you think they should suppress findings like this? Should we be allowed to carry on in ignorance? Do you think it was wrong to tell people not to drink or smoke or eat soft cheese or whatever the latest advice is?

i think the study makes people angry CD because its about peoples weight issues

its a very touchy subject

I think that an awful lot of these scientific reports that come out and then the next month are contradicted, first of all it's healthy to eat something, then the next week it's not, the debate about to drink or not to drink during pregnancy has raged back and forth.

The only truth is that we don't know for sure.

Yes yes
but that is not a valid reason to suppress the findings is it?

As I said further down, smoking is a comfort thing too like overeating, they still warn smokers about the dangers so why not overweight people? Obv some people still choose to smoke/drink/not lose weight that is entirely up to them. But for those who would like to heed warnings why should they not have this information available?

It's a huge sample though isn't it

And yes of course it is in all likelihood down to a combination of factors eg poor diet, folic acid intake not being enough for size of body etc, but those things are directly related to being overweight and the trend is clearly there.

I was underweight when I conceived DS and the (obese) MW was very judgemental and referred me to a foetal growth clinic. Imagine my surprise when I had the biggest baby of my antenatal group (8lb 12oz). Not sure how that is relevant but I wanted to get ot off my chest anyhow

It's not about supressing findings, let's be serious here it's not like they have found the cure for cancer, they are saying maybe it could possibly be a factor, in a whole realm of other factors.

I don't think they should be supressed I just think it's important not to blow these studies up out of all preportion.

rebelmum it is possible to have a healthy diet and be obese. I have a healthy diet (probably healthier than many skinnier women) and am obese. I eat too much. Obesity is not necessarily linked to unhealthy food. Admittedly if you live on MacDonalds it is much easier to overeat becasue of the calorie heavy foods. Not really relevant to the discussion just wanted to point it out.

I don't think anyone is blowing it out of proportion, just discussing it