"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?

[CountessDracula]

(what I mean to clarify is that although it upsets them they recognise that it is not their fault they are overweight and can't lose weight but the information is still beneficial to those who can, in the same way that I simply could not breastfeed and felt upset but acknowledged that the campaign was for the greater good and not aimed at rarities like me)

[nailpolish]

CD

your post of 15:13:02 i 100% agree wiht

[Kewcumber]

I have no problem with the information being made available CD. In reality most people will ahve left it far too late to do much about the weight healthily at the point they care about his kind of thing. I lost weight for my final IVF session - why didn;t I do it for the first two - it may have made the differnce. I was desparate, you would have thought that it was the obviousl thing to do. But no-one was really blunt enough with me about the differnce it could make and the stress of IVF is often not really compatabile with losing weight easily.

It is very easy to become defensive about the problmes caused by obesity particularly wrt you DC's. It is horrible knowing that it is (in a way_ self inflicted and contributes to your feelings of inadequacy IME which again tends to drive you (me!) to comfort eat.

I'm afraid at least 50% (random number plucking there) of obese adults are a lost cause. We need to focus on children and not reward them with food and give them self-esteem which revolves around how they look (good or bad).

[CountessDracula]

"But no-one was really blunt enough with me about the differnce it could make"

so would something like this info have changed that?

sorry I really don't want you to feel upset by this, I am not trying to upset people. But sometimes it is unavoidable I suppose. God I come from a family of stumpy apple shaped troglodytes I do knwo how it feels, I will never be a size 10 either!

[Kewcumber]

not at all upset about it CD, don;t worry.

No amount of general campaigns/reading etc would have made the differnce I'm afraid - no-one thinks these general things apply to them personally and though I like to think I am intelligent I am no different. What did make the different was sitting in front of a doctor looked me in the eye and said "Kewcumber, losing a stone may make the differnce between this final IVF cycle working or not working so I want you to lose at least 1 stone"

[Kewcumber]

obviously he didn;t call me Kewcumber...

[Kewcumber]

I aspire to being a stumpy apple shape - we are more Shrek shaped in my family.

[Flibbertyjibbet]

In my own family the stats are - me average weight, 2 perfect babies; bil's gf, very slim 1 perfect baby; sil very obese, baby with birth defect..
But usually I never pay any attention to statistics.
I think its more to do with the unhealthy diet - sil thinks a varied diet means alternating between Mc Donalds and kentucky, and that the 3 main food groups are Canned, Frozen, and Takeway.

[margoandjerry]

Just to prove what a freak I am, I am the only person I know who lost weight during pg. Didn't have morning sickness. Just lost about two stone for no reason. I bet people who put on weight during pg would be really annoyed if I told them how easy it was

Anyway, I don't think this sort of information should be suppressed. Of course not. It's obviously important to control your weight. What should be suppressed is the sort of knee-jerk reaction we see in the media and people getting increasingly judgemental about weight. I actually think the word "obese" sounds so horrible it makes people lose all intelligence and they react in a really emotional way, with a general "ugh", rather than with thought.

[CountessDracula]

granted

wow how odd that you lost weight when pg
Maybe you have a hormonal imbalance?

[CountessDracula]

oh and you are NOT a freak

[LadyOfTheFlowers]

i was overweight with a bmi of 34 at both times of conception and had 2 normal babies with normal labours and natural water deliveries.

i am sleek once more now though! lol
i am tall and i 'carried it well' they told me!?

[margoandjerry]

I am tall too Lady of the Flowers. People don't really believe me when I tell them how much I weigh! (Then I don't really tell many people!)

[Loobeeloo]

Margo, I too lost weight throughout my last pregnancy tho that could have had something to do with the fact I had 2 under 2 at the time to run around after, now I have 3 under 3

[Kewcumber]

I have one under 2, I cannot imagine having the time and/or energy to have sex at least twice in three years!

[2mum]

Ive 2 children with sn and i was in good health and had a good figure when i had them. It sounds like rubbish to me but then im not an expert.

[Flibbertyjibbet]

After an awful long time trying and a m/c I read about weight affecting chances of conception so I lost 10lbs to take me well into the ideal bmi range for my height (I was previously not too far into the overweight category).
I got pregnant. So I am absolutely convinced that weight must be an influencing factor in all things babyish.

[Kewcumber]

but there were 10,000 obese women in the study and 5000 non-obese so a straw poll of about 20 women isn't really going to enlighten us any more!

I would be far more interested if it was accompanied with a study into the reasons eg vitmain absorption, whether gestational diabetes really is the differnce. Shouldn;t be hard to test the gestational diabetes theory - check the birth defects in the gestational diabetes group split my obese vs non-obese. Wouldn't provide the answer?

[Kewcumber]

Flibby IIRC correctly a few pounds over BMI is not felt to have an impact in conception. Most clinics I think use BMI of 35 as the point that it makes a big difference (though obviously in reality it is a sliding scale)

interestingly I would probably start ovulating in a famine - I am the fail-safe mechanism to provide for the continuity of the human race in the event of world famine. You should all be very grateful to me. (not that I have been called on to test this fact)

[margoandjerry]

kew, am the same. I am the most fertile person ever. Again, I suspect people battling infertility would really struggle with that - it's just easy for me and isn't for them. Nothing I've done to "deserve" it other than be lucky.

[margoandjerry]

kew, misread your post [tut smiley]

But anyway, my point remains!

[rebelmum1]

I don't think that they're saying all children with disabilities have obese parents. I think they're saying if you are obese it increases the possibility. Like older parents have an increased risk of complications such as a baby with downs. They don't say all parents with babies with downs are old.