About half the cases of gestational diabetes, a common pregnancy complication , could be avoided if body weight was maintained in the normal range, according to a study that followed almost two million births in Sweden from 2000 to 2020. Also read | Gestational diabetes: Myths and truths you need to know about Gestational diabetes , in which a pregnant woman develops high blood sugar levels, can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes later in life. Obesity and overweight, indicated by a higher-than-30 body mass index, have been studied to have adverse pregnancy outcomes.
In this study, researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, estimated the extent to which pregnancy complications could be averted if women had normal weight before conceiving. How healthy weight before pregnancy matters "For example, we concluded that about half of all cases of gestational diabetes could potentially be prevented. This applies to both women born in Sweden and foreign-born women," Maryam Shirvanifar, a PhD student at Linköping University and first author of the study published in The Lancet Public Health journal, said.
The researchers also found that over a quarter of pre-eclampsia cases could be avoided if a healthy weight is maintained prior to pregnancy. The condition involves high blood pressure and can be accompanied with severe headaches, vision problems such as blurring, and swelling in feet and ankles, among others. The study looked at both women born in Sweden and those who had move.