Explain the effect that maternal body weight has on the health of the mother and infant by describing the increased health risks seen in underweight mothers and obese mothers.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Underweight women have a higher risk of having a low-birthweight infant, especially if she is malnourished or unable to gain sufficient weight during pregnancy. In addition, the rates of preterm births and infant deaths are higher for underweight women. An underweight women improves her chances of having a healthy by gaining extra pounds during pregnancy.
Obese women have an especially high risk of medical complications such as gestational hypertension, gestational diabetes, and postpartum infections. Compared with other women, obese women are also more likely to have other complications of labor and delivery. Infants of obese women are more likely to be large for gestational age, weighing more than 9 pounds. Problems associated with macrosomia include increases in the likelihood of a difficult labor and delivery, birth trauma, and cesarean delivery, which presents a high risk in obese women. Consequently, these infants have a greater risk of poor health and death than infants of normal weight. Of greater concern than infant birthweight is the poor development of infants born to obese mothers. Obesity may double the risk for neural tube defects.