Prenatal outcome in obese pregnant women

• Published in: Journal of Japan Society of Perinatal and Neonatal Medicine Vol. 59; no. 3; pp. 354 - 359
• Main Authors: Sato, Arina, Osafune, Ayako, Kinoshita, Teruhisa, Inoue, Mikako, Takenaka, Misaki, Akita, Hirofumi, Kuroda, Keita, Hattori, Kei, Suzuki, Yuko, Nagai, Takashi, Yamamoto, Shinichi, Umezu, Tomokazu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japan Society of Perinatal and Neonatal Medicine 2023
• Subjects: caesarean section; maternal; obesity
• ISSN: 1348-964X; 2435-4996
• DOI: 10.34456/jjspnm.59.3_354

Obese pregnant women are at high risk for maternal and infant complications and consideration of prenatal care and delivery method is important. In this study, we retrospectively compared obese and severely obese groups to clarify the characteristics of prenatal management in obese pregnant women. We studied 164 women who had delivery from 2017 to 2020, classifying pregnant women with BMI 35 or above as severe obese and BMI between 30 and 35 as obese at 30th week pregnancy. The severely obese group had significantly higher risk of having hypertension and HDP and socio-economic problems compared to the obese group. There was no significant difference between the severe obese group and the obese group in the outcome of vaginal delivery cases. For cesarean sections, induction time of anesthesia, operation time were significantly longer in the severe obese group, and general anesthesia and sedentary regional anesthesia were significantly more common in the severely obese group. There was no significant difference in the infant outcome and the reason of NICU hospitalization. Comparing the severe obese group with the obese group, we see higher risk with higher BMI, suggesting that the management of pregnancy and delivery in obese women should take into account not only obstetric but also social, medical, and anesthetic risks.