The Effect of Gestational Weight Gain on Incidence of Unexpected Caesarean Section, Complications of Pregnancy, and Neonatal Outcomes

Background: Weight gain during pregnany causes a significant amount of adverse effect on the maternal and fetal outcomPurpose: this study is to understand the effect of weight gain during pregnancy on pregnancy complications,... [ view full abstract ]

Background: Weight gain during pregnany causes a significant amount of adverse effect on the maternal and fetal outcom

Purpose: this study is to understand the effect of weight gain during pregnancy on pregnancy complications, unexpected cesarean section and neonatal outcomes.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted with participant data obtained from a tertiary medical center's maternal ward in the northern part of the country from January 2010 to December 2014. A total of 300 maternal and neonatal outcomes were analyzed with the IBM SPSS 18.0 statistic software. Significance of the end results were analyzed with Chi-square or t-test.

Results: showed a direct relationship between body mass index (BMI) and unexpected cesarean section rate. At different trimesters, the risk hazard of unexpected cesarean section is 1.79 in obese patients compared to normal weighted patients (χ2＝6.301，P ＜0.05). The most common causes of unexpected ceasarean section includes fetal distress (p=0.03) and dysfunctional labor (p <0.0001). The analysis also show increase in pregnancy complications (χ2＝6.63，p ＜0.05) in obese patients, with odds ratio of 2.27. The primary complications associated with obese pregnant women include gestational hypertension (p <0.0001) and gestational diabetes mellitus (p =0.03). However, the study showed no significance between BMI and neonatal outcomes (χ2＝1.94，p ＞0.05).

Conclusions: Obesity in pregnancy is associated with increased unexpected cesarean section rate and pregnancy complications. The association between obesity in pregnancy and adverse neonatal outcome has no significance. The study points out the importance of adequate weight control in pregnancy as it may decrease unexpected cesarean section rates and pregnancy complications.