Could Weight-Loss Surgery Up Preemie Birth Odds? – WebMD

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 24, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Mothers-to-be who’ve had weight-loss surgery may have increased odds for premature delivery, researchers report.

“Women and their doctors should be aware of this risk increase, and women with previous bariatric [weight-loss] surgery should be carefully monitored during pregnancy,” said Dr. Olof Stephansson, lead researcher on a new study from Sweden.

The current findings contradict results from a smaller study by the same team. However, the earlier research involved fewer than 600 women who had undergone weight-loss surgery.

This time, the researchers assessed nearly 2,000 births after the surgery. The investigators found that 8.4 percent were preterm — before 37 weeks’ gestation. That compared with 6.8 percent among nearly 6,600 women of similar size who didn’t have the weight-loss procedure.

“We cannot say what is causing this risk increase, but we have matched other known risk factors like maternal age, cigarette smoking and parity [number of pregnancies],” said Stephansson, a senior researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

Weight-loss surgery — a treatment for severe obesity — is increasingly common among women of child-bearing age, the authors noted. It’s often recommended after diet and lifestyle changes fail to budge the scale.

Often, obese women have problems conceiving, and weight-loss surgery, or “bariatric” surgery, “can give them a chance at fertility,” said Dr. Mitchell Roslin, chief of obesity surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

“I see many women who can’t conceive because of their obesity, and I think that bariatric surgery can give them an opportunity,” Roslin said. “However, after bariatric surgery a woman’s first pregnancy is a high-risk pregnancy.”

The odds of delivering prematurely after bariatric surgery are still low, however, and should be weighed against the risks obesity poses during pregnancy, the experts suggest.

In the new study, Stephansson and colleagues also found that the risk of moderately preterm birth — between 32 and 37 weeks’ gestation — was higher after bariatric surgery: 7.3 percent, versus 5.7 percent among moms who hadn’t had a weight-loss operation.

from myhealtyze http://www.myhealtyze.tk/could-weight-loss-surgery-up-preemie-birth-odds-webmd/