Maternal obesity and its association with neonatal morbidity

Abstract

of class III obesity was 9.9%.2 More concerning is the finding that among women giving birth in 2014, 24.8% were reported as obese and 25.6% as overweight.3 This unfortunate trend is further illustrated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who reported that obesity among women of childbearing age (18-44 years) increased by almost 30% over the last decade, from 21.7% in 2006 to 27.5 % in 2016.4 Despite the fact that most recently the prevalence of obesity seems to have stabilized in the overall population, the prevalence of class II and class III obesity in reproductive aged women is still on the rise.5 In short, pre-pregnancy BMI outside the normal range are now at an all time high in reproductive aged women and raise considerable individual and public health concerns.