Obese Women Give Birth to Iron-Deficient Babies

Women with an unhealthy weight are at greater risk of giving birth to babies with iron deficiency, a new study said.

Iron is crucial for the healthy growth of a child. Iron deficiency can affect the normal growth of a child and interfere with learning abilities, as well as harm the immune system.                               

Due to the excess fat in the body, obese women experience chronic inflammation. Inflammation, or the immune response to excess fat, affects the regular function of a hormone known as hepcidin in the body. The high levels of hepcidin thus created will lead to a decrease in the iron levels in the body.

To prove the link between maternal obesity and iron deficiency in children, a team of researchers from Tufts University looked at 30 pregnant women. Half of the participants were obese. A body mass index above 30 is considered to be obese.

During the second trimester, pregnant women underwent tests to measure iron and hepcidin levels. Later, using blood from the umbilical cord, researchers measured and recorded the iron levels of their newborns.

Researchers found high levels of hepcidin also affecting a mother's ability to transfer the required level of iron to their babies during pregnancy. Babies of obese women had low levels of iron compared to babies of women with a healthy weight.

"When there is excess hepcidin in a cell, it binds to and inhibits the function of ferroportin, the protein that allows iron to pass through the cell membrane and into the bloodstream," senior author of the study Simin Nikbin Meydani said in a news release. 

Findings of the study have been published in the Journal of Perinatology.

According to CDC, the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for iron is 27 mg daily for pregnant women, 10 mg for those aged between 14 and 18, and 9 mg for those aged between 19 and 50 for lactating women. According to them, consuming foods rich in vitamin C, like guava, kiwi, orange, papaya, mango, helps the body to absorb iron.

Some of the foods rich in iron are clams, fortified cereals, oysters, red meat, poultry, fish, white beans, spinach, pumpkin-squash seed kernels, lentils, chick peas and soybeans.