Obese 'more likely to miscarry'
Updated on 13 November 2008
Overweight women are more likely to miscarry healthy babies than women of a normal weight, according to a new study.
Those whose body mass index (BMI) was greater than 25 were found to be more likely to lose healthy babies in early pregnancy.
A BMI of 18 to 24.9 is considered normal while above 25 is overweight and over 30 is obese.
The latest research was led by Dr Inna Landres from Stanford University School of Medicine in California and presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in San Francisco.
The study involved examining the DNA from foetuses that were miscarried in the first eight weeks of pregnancy among 204 women.
All the women had attended an academic centre between 1999 and 2008 for fertility counselling.
Experts looked at the foetal tissue to work out which foetuses had chromosomal abnormalities - a major cause of miscarriage.
The rest of the foetuses had no chromosomal abnormalities and were regarded as normal.
The research found that 53% of infants miscarried by overweight women were normal and had no chromosomal abnormalities.
In contrast, in women with a healthy weight and a BMI under 25, just 37% of miscarried babies were healthy.
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