Overweight, obese women up baby heart risk

ATLANTA, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Women overweight or obese before pregnancy had an approximately 18 percent increased risk of having a baby with certain heart defects, U.S. researchers say.

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, finds a significant increase in several types of heart defects in babies born to overweight and obese women, compared to babies born to normal weight women.

The researchers looked at 25 types of heart defects and found associations with obesity for 10 of them. The heart defects included obstructive defects on the right side of the heart, and defects in the tissue that separates the two upper chambers of the heart.

Women who were overweight but not obese had approximately a 15 percent increased risk of delivering a baby with certain heart defects, the study says.

"Congenital heart defects are the most common types of birth defect, and among all birth defects, they are a leading cause of illness, death and medical expenditures," Dr. Edwin Trevathan, director of the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, says in statement.

"Women who are obese and who are planning a pregnancy could benefit by working with their physicians to achieve a healthy weight before pregnancy."