Obesity May Raise Risk of Stillbirth, Infant Death

[The Straight Story]

Obesity May Raise Risk of Stillbirth, Infant Death
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Reuters Health

Friday, April 29, 2005

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who are obese before becoming pregnant seem to have a higher risk of stillbirth and of having an infant die soon after birth, according to a new study.

The study of more than 24,000 Danish women found that, compared with normal-weight women, those who were obese before pregnancy had twice the risk of stillbirth and to have a baby die within a month, according to findings published in the British Journal of Gynecology.

For all of the women, regardless of weight, stillbirths and newborn deaths were relatively uncommon. Among obese women, stillbirths occurred at a rate of less than 12 per 1,000 births, and the rate of newborn death was lower still, at about 7 per 1,000 births.

But the figures compare with a stillbirth rate of 4 per 1,000 births among normal-weight women, and a newborn death rate of less than 3 for every 1,000 births.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_24382.html