Pregnancy course, delivery and post-partum period in adipose women

Background: Maternal obesity during pregnancy and delivery and in the post partum period is of great clinical importance. In general, obesity means an increase in maternal, fetal and neonatal risk. Material and Methods: In a study of matched pairs equalized with respect to age and parity we compared 299 obese women (BMI > 30 kg/m(2)) with the same number of normal weight gravidas (BMI 20-25 kg/m(2)). Our results were also compared to the peri- and neonatal database of Saxony (SPN 2000). Results: Obese gravidas showed significantly (p < 0.05) more complications like pregnancy-related hypertension, diabetes mellitus, preterm labour, oligo-/polyhydramnios, abnormal weight development and had a significantly higher rate of caesarean sections and labour inductions. The frequency of caesarean section was proportional to the BMI. Comparison of our data with the SPN 2000 made it obvious that the women with an BMI > 30 kg/ m(2) developed more hypertensive disorders during pregnancy, and were more likely to have diabetes mellitus and go into preterm labour than the overall population in Saxony. However, when treated intensively the fetal outcome of our obese gravidas did not differ from the peri- and neonatal data of the normal-weight patients. Conclusion: Our study shows that weight reduction prior to pregnancy has a great impact, because complications and disorders in pregnancy do not correlate entirely with abnormal weight gain during gestation.