Obesity increases the risk of preterm delivery
The risk of preterm delivery increases with maternal overweight and obesity, according to a new Swedish study published in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Women with the highest Body Mass Index (BMI) also had the highest statistical risk of giving preterm birth – and especially extremely preterm birth.“For the individual woman who is overweight or obese, the risk of an extremely preterm delivery is still small”, says Dr. Sven Cnattingius, Professor at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, who led the study. “However, these finding are important from a population perspective.