Obese mothers 'put babies' hearts at risk': Infants show early stages of disease when they are born

Babies whose mothers are overweight or obese show early signs of heart disease at birth, warn researchers.
Scans of newborn infants with fat mothers found they have thicker artery walls - a sign of heart disease - than those born to women of ‘normal’ weight.
The arterial thickening occurred independently of the child’s weight at birth, which is a known risk factor for heart disease or stroke in later life.

High fat risk: Children born to obese mothers show early signs of heart disease at birth

Experts from Nottingham University say the early difference detected in a major artery could explain why a mother’s weight during pregnancy is so influential to their child’s subsequent risk of cardiovascular problems.
Obesity affects around 20 per cent of all women of childbearing age, with a further third being overweight.

The latest study included 23 women, with an average age of 35, whose Body Mass Index (BMI) scores ranged from being underweight to seriously obese at 16 weeks of pregnancy.
Researchers from Sydney University, Australia, scanned the abdominal aorta - the section of the artery extending down to the belly - in each newborn within seven days of birth to find out the thickness of the two innermost walls - the intima and media.

Danger: Babies born to fat mothers have thicker artery walls regardless of birth weight(file photo)

Intima-media thickness ranged from 0.65mm to 0.97mm, and was associated with the mother’s weight.
The higher a mum’s weight, the greater was the baby’s intima-media thickness, irrespective of how much the baby weighed at birth.
The difference in intima-media thickness between babies of overweight and normal weight mums was 0.06mm.
The findings are published in the Fetal and Neonatal Edition of Archives of Disease of Childhood (must credit).
‘The earliest physical signs of atherosclerosis are present in the abdominal aorta, and aortic intima-media thickness is considered the best non-invasive measure of structural health of the vasculature in children’ says the report..
This may be the mechanism by which a mum being overweight might affect her child’s subsequent risk of heart disease and stroke in later life, they conclude.
In the UK almost a quarter of children are overweight or obese by the time they go to school.
The latest findings add to evidence that internal fat levels in the newborn baby are directly related to the mother’s weight during pregnancy.
Scans of babies less than 12 days old by researchers at Imperial College London found a direct link between a mother’s weight and the build-up in fat around their baby’s abdomen in the same way as people in their 50s.
Previous research by Nottingham University looking at data from 30 studies of 200,000 people found children born to mothers who are overweight face a higher risk of being fat themselves throughout childhood and their teens.

Being overweight and smoking during pregnancy increase the chances still further of children being obese, along with being heavy at birth and rapid weight gain as a baby.
Amy Thompson, Senior Cardiac Nurse at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), said ‘These results could suggest a direct link between a mother’s weight during pregnancy and her child’s risk of cardiovascular disease.

Bad for both: Researchers have found a direct link between a mother¿s weight and the build-up in fat around their newborn baby¿s abdomen

‘However, this was a very small study of just 23 women and we would need to see research on a much larger scale to make any firm conclusions. Also, since the babies were only examined at one week old, we don’t know what these findings may mean for their heart health as their life continues.
‘Additionally, some of the mothers studied were smokers, and some developed high blood pressure or diabetes during pregnancy, which may have played a role in the results.
‘We do know that obesity during pregnancy can cause a number of problems for both the mother and their unborn baby.
'If you’re thinking of starting a family and have concerns about your weight, try to eat healthily and keep active.
'Looking after yourself when you’re pregnant will mean that you are in the best position to look after your baby when the time comes.’

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