Interpregnancy Weight Change Among Mothers of a Child with a Major
Congenital Anomaly: A Danish Nationwide Cohort Study
Abstract
Objective: To compare the interpregnancy weight gain in women whose
first infant had a major congenital anomaly vs. those without an
affected child. Design: Nationwide cohort study Setting: Denmark
Population: All primigravid women with two consecutive singleton births
between January 2004 and December 2017. Main Outcome Measure:
Inter-pregnancy weight difference Methods: Multivariable linear
regression compared women whose infant had an anomaly vs. those whose
infant did not, adjusting for interpregnancy time interval,
demographics, smoking and health status at the first pregnancy. Results:
Of the 199,536 women, 4035 (2.0%) had a child with an anomaly at the
first birth. The mean (SD) maternal BMI at the start of the first
pregnancy was 24.2 (4.9) and 23.8 (4.6) kg/m2 in women with, and
without, an anomaly-affected newborn. By the start of the second
pregnancy, their interpregnancy weight gain was 4.7% and 4.2%,
respectively – an adjusted absolute higher gain of 0.34% (95% CI 0.11
to 0.58) or 0.13 kg (95% CI 0.01 to 0.26) in women with an
anomaly-affected first-born infant. Compared to those with an unaffected
pregnancy, the interpregnancy weight gain difference was greatest in
women whose first-born infant had a multi-organ anomaly (0.73%, 95% CI
-0.10 to 1.57). Weight gain was more pronounced in women whose infants
spent >30 days in hospital between pregnancies.
Conclusions: Mothers of an infant with a major congenital anomaly have
higher weight gain after pregnancy. Strategies are needed to support a
healthy lifestyle in these women.