Women need warnings about harmful effects of obesity in pregnancy, says European project

Strategies are needed to reduce the prevalence of obesity in women of childbearing age because of the longlasting effects on the mothers and their children, a major European project has concluded.

The chances of developing cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes are all greater in people born to mothers who were overweight during their late pregnancy, showed the results of more than 13 000 people who were followed from their birth in the 1930s and ’40s to the age of 60-70.

The findings were from the Developmental ORIgins of healthy and unhealthy AgeiNg: the role of maternal obesity (DORIAN) consortium,1 funded by the European Commission’s Framework Programme that began in January 2012. The project aimed to better understand the …