Babies have been found to be increasingly at risk of heart attack, asthma and brain-damage. The reason for this health deterioration is apparently because of obesity in mothers.
Experts have warned that overweight mothers, while giving birth, naturally pass down their obesity to their kin. This becomes a vicious cycle that becomes a huge liability on the parent's health and her offspring, especially during childbirth.
According to The Guardian, psychological disorders such as autism and ADHD are highly common in the babies of highly overweight mothers. The risks have mounted to such extremes that urgent action is now being taken before delivery, ensuring that women were of normal weight before they conceived their child.
U.K.'s Daily Mail has reported that women in Britain have the highest rates of obesity in all of Europe. According to a research, one in five British women are obese. This increases the likelihood of miscarriage, neo-natal death, gestational diabetes and blood clots quite significantly.
It is mostly developed countries that have fallen trap to obesity. The western world has been so caught up in this pandemic that governments should start considering maternal obesity as a global public health concern.
For a child who has just been born to an obese mother, he or she is very prone to coronary heart disease and type-2 diabetes. Other than that, these children are also found to be having poorer cognitive performance relative to their counterparts, not to mention the increasing risks of having neurodevelopmental disorders including cerebral palsy.
What's important to understand is that why obesity creates severe problems for birth. Obesity in pregnancy badly affects neuroendocrine and metabolic changes inside the mother's body and further leads to a high chance of depriving the fetus with the much needed hormonal exposure and nutrient supply.
