Adverse pregnancy and perinatal outcomes of obese women in an institution of high complexity

Abstract

Introduction: obesity is a rising public health problem. Women of childbearing age are one of themost affected groups.
Objective: to determine the frequency and possible relation between maternal and perinatal adverse outcomes of obese and hospitalized women in the postpartum period.
Methods: cross-sectional descriptive study. It was took a non-probability sample. The sampleincluded obese postpartum women, hospitalized in the institution between June andOctober 2018. It was obtained Information about the weight the women had on the first prenataland postpartum control. The sources were digital medical records and surveys.
Results: it were included 106 patients, 20,8% of them with pathological history prior to gestation and 43,4 % of the patients developed pathologies during pregnancy. In 90,6% of the cases, gestational age was between 37 and 40 weeks. The mean of the weight in newborn infantswas 6.9±1 pounds (lb). Most of the women started gestation with overweight (94.3%)and 66% have an increased Body Mass Index. It was not found relation (p>0,05) between weight increase and a higher frequency of adverse effects in either mother or baby. The high frequency of pathologies developed during pregnancy and an important rise in obesity grade, could increase the predisposition to pathologies like hypertensive disorders associated to pregnancy, gestational hypothyroidism and gestational diabetes in expectant mothers.