Obese pregnancies rising in Canada

OTTAWA, April 21 (UPI) -- Obstetricians across Canada said they are concerned with the growing number of obese women becoming pregnant and the medical consequences.

Their concerns are backed by Statistics Canada, which reported 23 percent of women of childbearing age in the country and adult obesity rates are rising fastest in the 25- to 34-year-old age group. That's more than doubled in the past 25 years, the Canwest News Service reported.

Dr. Jan Christilaw, an obstetrician-gynecologist at BC Women's Hospital in Vancouver, said a woman with a body mass index of 30 or more is considered obese, and the number of women with a pre-pregnancy body mass index of 50, 60 or higher is growing.

Apart from health risks to mother and baby, Dr. Lawrence Oppenheimer, site lead for obstetrics at the General campus of the Ottawa Hospital, said medical manpower and costs are affected.

"You might need two, three surgeons to do the procedures for a Caesarean (section)," Oppenheimer told Canwest News Service. "It depends how big the patient is. To put it bluntly, you literally have to hold back the fat. You have to have more retractors and more people retracting."