Maternal and Fetal Outcome in Obese and Non-Obese Pregnant Women: A Single Centre Comparative Study

Abstract

Background: Obesity is a global health issue that presents significant problems for healthcare professionals managing pregnant women and newborns.

Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the maternal and fetal outcome in obese and non-obese pregnant women

Materials and Methods: The present comparative prospective study was conducted at the Gynaecology Department, Khalifa Gulnawaz Teaching Hospital Bannu form May 2023 to October 2023 after taking approval from the ethical committee of the institute. Pregnant women with a singleton pregnancy attending the hospital for their first trimester antenatal visit were enrolled in this study. The females were selected using a non-probability consecutive sampling procedure. Women with   BMI 18.5 to 25 were placed in none obese group and those with BMI above 30 were placed in obese group. For the determination of sample size WHO sample size calculator was used. The required sample size was 210. The participants were equally divided in to group A and B. The group A included obese women and group B had non obese women.  All selected women were monitored at least 4 times during the pregnancy period to measure prenatal and maternal health issues up to delivery and maternal outcomes were evaluated. SPSS version was used to analyze the collected data. Numerical data was expressed as mean and standard deviation categorical data was express as frequencies and percentages. The Chi-square test was used to examine the feto-maternal outcomes of obese and non-obese women. P-values < 0.05 were considered significant.

Results: A total of 210 pregnant women were included in this study, which were equally divided in to obese and non-obese groups. The study found that women with a healthy weight had much better maternal outcomes than obese women.  Obese women had high rate of preterm birth, cesarean section, preeclampsia, Gestational diabetes mellitus, hypertension and IUGR versus non-obese women. Fetal complications such as mean low birth weight, macrosomia , NICU admission and low Apgar scores at 1 and 5 minutes were most prevalent in the obese group as compare to non-obese group.

Conclusion: Our study concluded that maternal obesity is associated to poor pregnancy outcomes, including serious complications for both the mother and the fetus.

Keywords: obesity, comparative study, maternal and fetal outcomes