Changing Diet During Mid-Pregnancy Can Help Obese Women Reduce Their Babies’ Adiposity

obese pregnant women Expectant Mothers Body Mass Index infants Society for Reproductive Investigation Nashita R. Patel King's College London adiposity Lucilla Poston Pregnancy behavioral interventions

By Arvin Matthew Paculaba , Parent Herald Mar 21, 08:31 am

Expectant mothers who have a body mass index of 30 or greater can still reduce their child's adiposity. Scientists believe that plus-sized women can positively impact their baby's weight by simply making healthy decisions starting mid-pregnancy.

In a new study presented at the annual Society for Reproductive Investigation meeting, Dr. Nashita R. Patel and her research team from King's College London found that behavioral interventions in obese pregnant women were linked to reduced adiposity in their infants.

Med Page Today reported that mothers who changed their diets and started doing physical activities during the sixth month of their pregnancy gave birth to children who had less skinfold thickness than infants of sedentary mothers. Naturally, mothers in the intervention group were also healthier and had lesser amounts of maternal dietary glycemic load, sucrose and saturated fat in their system.

"We thought that 6 months was an important point," said Dr. Lucilla Poston. "If an infant has increased adiposity, it does reflect much greater adiposity at three years, six years and beyond."

The group may have already presented their study, but Poston explained that the researchers are still closely observing the infants. They will be adding more data to their findings when the children turn 3 and 6 years old.

"To my knowledge, this is the first time any group has shown in a randomized controlled trial that an intervention in pregnancy can lead to a reduction in adiposity of the children," Poston mused. "It's not a big change, it's 5%, it may be that it's not real, but I think it's pretty interesting."

Aside from reducing adiposity, behavioral interventions in obese pregnant women can lessen a child's risk of developing numerous health problems. According to Mayo Clinic, obesity during pregnancy can potentially cause macrosomia and birth defects in newborns. Children of obese mothers are also more susceptible to diabetes and heart disease when they become older.