FRIDAY, March 27 (HealthDay News) -- Women who have developed gestational diabetes in a prior pregnancy and have gained more than 10 pounds of weight between pregnancies are at increased risk for cesarean delivery of subsequent babies, according to a report published in the April issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Pathmaja Paramsothy, M.D., and colleagues at the University of Washington in Seattle, analyzed data on 2,753 women with gestational diabetes mellitus who had a vaginal delivery for their first pregnancy on record and who had at least one subsequent singleton birth.
The women's weight between births was categorized as more than 10 pounds of weight loss (10.9 percent of the women), weight gain or loss of no more than 10 pounds (54 percent), or weight gain over 10 pounds (35.1 percent), the authors note. Women in the weight gain group had an adjusted odds ratio of 1.70 for having a subsequent cesarean delivery, while women who lost weight had a 0.55 adjusted odds ratio for subsequent cesarean delivery, the researchers found.
"Decreasing the rate of cesarean delivery is an important step toward decreasing morbidity and mortality for neonates and mothers as well as decreasing health care costs," the authors write. "Obstetric and other medical providers should counsel women with gestational diabetes mellitus about not gaining excessive weight between pregnancies."
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