'Obese moms give birth to fat babies'

A team at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in West London used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to monitor fat levels in unborn babies and found some babies have similar fat build up around their abdomen that adults aged in their 50s have.

The team, led by Prof Neena Modi -- one of Britain's best experts on high-risk health problems in newborns, found nearly a third of children had more fat than expected.
Of the 105 babies (54 boys and 51 girls), 31 had more adipose, or fat, tissue around their abdomen than normal, the researchers said.

The findings, they said, are a strong evidence that being overweight or obese in pregnancy could result in potentially harmful changes to babies' fat levels while still in the womb.

"I was very surprised to be able to detect such a clear continuum of effect of maternal BMI (body mass index) on the baby," Prof Modi was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
"This is a very important finding indeed, opening the door to a new understanding of how a mother’s metabolism affects her baby," she said.

"This shows how sensitive the baby is to the environment experienced within the womb and how lifelong effects may be initiated before birth."

According to researchers, newborn babies usually have about 700gm of adipose tissue, but for each unit increase in maternal BMI, this increased by approximately 7gm with a huge build-up in fat in the babies' livers.

Prof Modi, a consultant neonatologist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, said that all women should be aware of the effects of being obese and what this means for their child.

In adults, adipose tissue is found mainly under the skin, but also in deposits between the muscles, around the intestines and around the heart.

"In adults too much adipose tissue around the tummy is particularly bad and is associated with much greater risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes," she said.

Body mass index is calculated by dividing a person's weight in kg by the square of their height in metres. The WHO classes a BMI between 18.5 and 25 as normal weight, between 25 and 30 as overweight and over 30 as obese.