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If you are
planning pregnancy, there are two things that are important for your child’s
respiratory health: not being overweight before you conceive and avoidance of tobacco smoke. New
findings show excess weight before pregnancy quadruples the chances of wheezing
and asthma in children beyond the first year of life.
Researchers
from the Centre for Research in
Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) explain wheezing – a symptom of
asthma - is more frequent in offspring of women who are overweight before
conceiving, in findings published in the journal 'Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology'.
Compared to mothers of normal weight, risk of wheezing was
four times higher for children born to overweight women.
For the study, researchers looked at data from 1107 women and
their children from a Spanish study on infancy and environment known as the INMA project,
confirming the finding that too much weight before pregnancy – regardless of
mom’s smoking status – could be a risk for developing asthma.
The finding highlights a risk factor for childhood health
from excess weight before pregnancy.
Healthy weight before and during pregnancy both important
Being during pregnancy can have health risks including miscarriage,
stillbirth, preeclampsia from high blood sugar and gestational diabetes. Your
baby can suffer from birth defects, being born prematurely and obesity during
childhood.
The finding is another reason to make sure you are at a
healthy weight before deciding to become pregnant. There are other known risks
to being overweight during pregnancy. Asthma is on the rise. The study suggests
being overweight before pregnancy can raise your child’s risk of wheezing in
the first 14 months after being born.
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