There is an association between adiposity at birth, that's the amount of fat, and adiposity in later childhood.Ĭhildren who are overweight at nursery school age tend to become obese adolescents, and obese adolescents have a higher risk of obesity in adulthood. Large for gestational age infants, as these babies are known, can have problems at delivery in that there a higher risk of the mother not being able to deliver vaginally with a greater chance of the need to deliver for caesarean section, and a higher risk of damage during delivery and of stillbirth, amongst other problems.īabies that are born too large tend to become overweight adults. In turn this can lead to the child being born too large. The first thing to note is that there is an immediate and very obvious risk to the obese mother in relation to a heightened chance of developing diabetes in pregnancy.
Researchers, including ourselves, have therefore been looking at the relationship between maternal obesity, the weight the mother puts on in pregnancy, and the risks to the child.
Countries like South Africa, for example, now have a new problem with maternal obesity, as the region transitions from dietary deprivation to dietary plenty. Those geographical reasons which are now showing the greatest rise obesity are those which historically have been undernourished. The United Kingdom has the highest level of maternal obesity in Europe.Īny high income country now has a big problem with obesity. The emphasis has now changed in developed countries and more recently to developing countries too, to the effects of maternal obesity, which is remarkably prevalent in our population. This was an unfortunate natural ‘experiment’ which showed that nutrition in utero is very important in terms of lifelong health for the child. In the last 20 or 30 years, researchers have followed up the children born to those mothers and found that the experience of famine in utero was associated with quite significant defects on the health of the child such as increased obesity, increased risk of cardiovascular disease and abnormal blood lipids. Despite this, very detailed clinical records continued to be recorded including the gestation at which the mother was exposed to famine, and the birthweight and placenta weight were noted. Some of the first evidence that maternal nutrition could have insidious and long term effects on the health of the child was derived from studies of children whose mothers experienced famine in the last few months of the second World War, the ‘Dutch Hunger Winter’.Įssentially, the occupying Nazis restricted food supplies to some cities eg, Amsterdam, and the mothers were severely restricted in their diet and the dietary intake in pregnancy. This occurs in the longer term and it's not so immediately obvious as something like a drug, but it's nonetheless now suggested to be a very important determinant of the risk of common diseases like obesity and diabetes in later life. There is increasing evidence that the mother's diet, weight and weight gain in pregnancy, and complications of pregnancy such as gestational diabetes and preeclampsia can all affect the health of the child. However, there are more insidious effects which aren't immediately obvious. These have obvious and dramatic effects on the child.Įnvironmental pollutants can also interfere with fetal growth and influence later health we know that maternal exposure, especially to traffic pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, can lead to babies being born with a low birthweight, which may predispose the child to infant and adulthood ill health. For example, if women take certain drugs in pregnancy, such as thalidomide, there are well documented effects on lifelong health. There is incontrovertible evidence that some harmful drugs and toxins can affect lifelong health.
Lucilla Poston, Tommy’s Campaign Professor Maternal & Fetal Health, Kings College London, conducted by April Cashin-Garbutt, MA (Cantab) How much evidence is there that the environment experienced within the womb can initiate lifelong effects? insight from the world’s leading expertsĪn interview with Prof.
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