Program Helps New Mothers Maintain Healthy Weight
An experimental new program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago is attempting to help pregnant mothers keep their weight in check, Reuters reported.
The study is part of the hospital’s effort to respond to research suggesting that excessive weight gain in pregnancy hurts both the mother and her fetus, raising the risk of complications during pregnancy and putting the child at risk for obesity and diabetes during adulthood.
Dr. Robert Kushner, who directs the Northwestern Comprehensive Center on Obesity, said experts have known for a long time that children of overweight mothers are more likely to be overweight themselves.
In the past, researchers attributed it to mothers that pass along bad eating and lifestyle habits to their children after birth. However, recent studies on animals suggest the environment the fetus is growing in influences the genes.
"The whole idea is: as that child comes out of the birth canal, you’ve already imprinted that child’s vulnerability to be overweight," Kushner said.
Kushner likened it to being born with handcuffs on. “In this environment, how do they have a fighting chance?" he told Reuters Health, referring to the growing obesity epidemic that affects a third of adults and nearly 17 percent of children in the United States.
Nearly one quarter of the 4 million births each year in the United States involve obese women, according to estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Obesity raises the risk for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, osteoarthritis, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, respiratory problems and even some cancers.
The direct and indirect cost of obesity was put at $117 billion each year, according to a 2000 report by the U.S. Surgeon General.
While the program at Northwestern is one of the first to tackle obesity in pregnancy, Kushner said pregnant women have often been considered hands off because of fear of harming the developing baby.
However, doing nothing may be doing more harm.
Since the program began in November, doctors have referred about 20 women so far and new ones are coming in each week.
The classes instruct expectant mothers on such issues as nutrition, stress and exercise and participants are asked to keep daily logs of their diet and activity levels.
The team may start offering some of the services online, according to Charlotte Niznik, an advanced practice nurse who coordinates the program.
"Everything is flexible. If we’re rigid, we’ll never get participation."
The program is currently free, thanks to a 3-year grant, and doctors hope to attract more black and Hispanic women, who are at highest risk for complications associated with obesity.
Several women in the program have had gastric bypass surgery and fear gaining too much weight, Niznik said.
"They are motivated to maintain a normal weight gain in pregnancy, which is no more than 15 pounds, because these women are obese," Niznik said. "They are 300 to 400 pounds."
The researchers behind the program hope to gather enough data to see if it helped reduce complications for mothers and gave babies a better shot at having a healthy weight.
“The near-term goal is to help women have healthy pregnancies,” said Dr. Alan Peaceman, an obstetrician who co-directs the pregnancy and obesity program.
He suggested that if the team can show that weight control during pregnancy reverses these trends, this is going to be one of the first successful approaches toward reducing childhood obesity, and that will be a major accomplishment.
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