Scotland’s first clinic for overweight mothers-to-be is being set up in a bid to cut the death rate among obese pregnant women and their babies.
Patients will be referred to the clinic by midwives and offered advice on diet and lifestyle as well as receiving extra scans and health checks.
Obese mothers account for one third of all pregnancy-related deaths despite making up a quarter of all births. Obese women are more likely to suffer miscarriage, stillbirth and early labour than women whose weight is within the normal healthy range when they are pregnant.
Babies born to obese mothers are more likely to suffer from spina bifida, heart problems and other birth defects as well as being overweight when they are born or later in life, and experts are increasingly worried about the impact of the UK’s obesity crisis on the nation’s health.
