2015 Study Abstract
Background
Maternal overweight and obesity are risk factors for stillbirth and infant mortality. Whether temporal changes in maternal weight affect these risks is not clear. We aimed to assess whether change of BMI between first and second pregnancies affects risks of stillbirth and infant mortality in the second-born offspring.
Methods
In a Swedish population-based cohort of women who gave birth to their first and second child between Jan 1, 1992, and Dec 31, 2012, we investigated associations between change in maternal body-mass index (BMI) during early pregnancy from first to second pregnancies and risks of stillbirth and neonatal, postneonatal, and infant mortality after the second pregnancy. Relative risks (RRs) for each outcome according to BMI change categories were calculated with binomial regression.
Findings
Complete information was available for 456 711 (77·7%) of 587 710 women who had their first and second single births in the study period. Compared with women with a stable BMI (change between −1 kg/m2 and
Interpretation
Our findings emphasise the need to prevent weight gain before pregnancy in healthy and overweight women and that weight loss should be promoted in overweight women.
Sources and more information
- Weight change between successive pregnancies and risks of stillbirth and infant mortality: a nationwide cohort study,
theLancet, PIIS0140-6736(15)00990-3, 02 December 2015. - Weight gain between pregnancies linked to stillbirths and infant deaths,
theGuardian, 2 December 2015. - Weight gain between pregnancies ‘linked to stillbirth’,
NHS Choices, December 3 2015.