The effects of pre-pregnancy body mass index and gestational weight gain on perinatal outcomes in Korean women: a retrospective cohort study

Abstract

Abstract Background The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain on perinatal outcomes in a population of Korean women. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 2,454 women who had received antenatal care at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital from January 2007 to December 2009. We used World Health Organization definitions for Asian populations of underweight (BMI Results Among obese women, the adjusted ORs for gestational diabetes, hypertensive disorder, and incompetent internal os of cervix were 4.46, 2.53, and 3.70 (95% CI = 2.63-7.59, 1.26-5.07, and 1.50-9.12), respectively, and the adjusted ORs for neonatal complications such as macrosomia and low Apgar score were 2.08 and 1.98 (95% CI = 1.34-3.22 and 1.19-3.29), respectively, compared with normal weight women. However, there was no positive linear association between gestational weight gain and obstetric outcomes. In normal weight women, maternal and neonatal complications were significantly increased with inadequate weight gain during pregnancy (p Conclusions This study shows that pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity are more closely related to the adverse obstetric outcomes than excess weight gain during pregnancy. In addition, inadequate weight gain during pregnancy can result in significant complications.