Obesity Is More Dangerous Than Gestational Diabetes...Higher rates of emergency cesarean section, birth intensive care unit admission, etc
May 07, 2025
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The results were introduced by the Korea Institute of Health and Medical Sciences based on a study conducted by Professor Oh Soo-young's team at Samsung Medical Center on the development of a high-risk maternal management model through clinical characteristics and perinatal prognosis analysis of domestic high-risk mothers.
According to the results of the study, 3,078 first-time pregnant women who gave birth to a single baby at a senior hospital in Korea between 2016 and 2020 were analyzed, and the emergency cesarean section rate of obese pregnant women reached 29.6%, higher than that of gestational diabetic mothers (18.7%). In addition, the rate of hypoglycemia (6.0%) or intensive care unit hospitalization (14.6%) was higher in obese pregnant women. For pregnant women with gestational diabetes, these rates were 1.6% and 12.6%, respectively.
Experts emphasized that it is desirable to maintain the body mass index (BMI) in the range of 18.5 to 22.9 before pregnancy in order to lower the risk of pregnancy due to obesity. Both excessive weight gain and excessive diet during pregnancy are not recommended and should follow the weight gain target according to the pre-pregnancy body mass index. Contrary to the misunderstanding that one should be careful about one's behavior during pregnancy, it was recommended that ordinary pregnant women do at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per day during pregnancy, except for high-risk groups of premature birth, such as low birth weight and multiple pregnancy, and cases of medical conditions such as heart or lung disease.
Meanwhile, the research team analyzed 3.68 million first-time pregnant women between 2005 and 2019 based on data from the National Health Insurance Service, and the premature birth rate of mothers aged 40 or older was 1.6 times higher than mothers aged 25 to 39. The rate of admission to the intensive care unit of the born baby was 1.5 times that of mothers aged 40 or older compared to those aged 25 to 29. For those over 44 years of age, the preterm birth rate was 1.9 times higher, and the birth rate of admission to the intensive care unit was 1.7 times higher.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
