Obesity complicating pregnancy continues to be a major clinical problem for the obstetrician and the obstetric anaesthetist. Studies suggest that the physiological changes of pregnancy, designed to increase maternal energetic efficiency and liberate fetal substrates, may contribute to a worsening of obesity in susceptible subjects. Adverse outcomes of pregnancy that are significantly more common in the obese include maternal death, thromboembolism, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, emergency caesarean section, neonatal death and fetal overgrowth. Outside pregnancy, obesity in the mother and the newborn contribute to later disease patterns that can shorten life expectancy.
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