Overweight is a major contributor to complications during pregnancy and childbirth – this applies to both women born in Sweden and women who have moved here, something that has not been well researched so far. Interventions that promote a healthy weight have the potential to prevent complications for all women, the researchers conclude. The study was conducted by researchers at Linköping University and Karolinska Institutet and is published in The Lancet Public Health .
In Sweden and similar high-income countries, there are inequalities in women's health during pregnancy and childbirth. Women who have migrated to Sweden from other countries are more affected by various serious complications compared to Swedish-born women. The risk of complications is particularly high in women born in certain parts of the world.
It is not clear why, but many different factors that affect health can contribute to this inequality. One possible factor is body weight. It is more common among migrant women from certain regions to have underweight, overweight or obesity (a disease where the person has overweight with a BMI of 30 or more) when they become pregnant.
"We know that overweight and obesity are linked to many complications during pregnancy and childbirth for women born in Sweden. Therefore, we wanted to investigate whether the inequalities in pregnancy complications between women born in different countries can to some extent be explained by differences in body weight. If you know tha.
