Overweight Mother and Congenital Heart Disease

February 8, 2010 5:54 am admin Health

According to a recent report, women who were overweight or obese are more likely to give birth to a baby with a heart defect. The risk of having a baby with congenital heart defects was around 18 per cent higher if the mother was overweight or obese when she became pregnant according to the study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers analysed the available data on 6,440 infants with congenital heart diseases and 5,673 infants without birth defects for the study. Mothers with type 1 or 2 diabetes, which is a high risk factor for heart defects, were excluded from the study.