A new investigation has called for immediate action to prevent obesity in pregnant women.
The study undertaken in Italy discovered that children who are born to mothers that are overweight are at risk of health problems in later life.
The research brought together statics about obesity from women around Europe and discovered that children born to overweight mothers are more likely to suffer from strokes or develop type 2 diabetes as they get older.
Sally Foster is a midwife in Lincoln and said “I think it needs to be more widely known what the problems can be for mum and baby if the mother has a raised BMI, so I think there needs to be more emphasis from the Government on this issue.”
Edinburgh University were also involved in the research and found that women who were overweight whilst pregnant lacked the necessary vitamins and minerals and this therefore means the placenta offers less protection to the unborn child than that of a person of an average weight.
Another reason the placenta offers less protection is because of the higher amount of saturated fats overweight women tend to consume compared to women of an average weight.
The research also discovered that women who were overweight or obese were more likely to produce smaller babies as the foetus was not getting the same level of protection as those with mothers of an average BMI.
The study also found that babies of overweight women were more likely to have a higher percentage of harmful sugar and fats in their blood.
The research which was approved by the European commission is still ongoing.
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