Obese and Pregnant - How Could This Affect My Baby?

Most obese women deliver healthy babies. However, one of the leading birth defects in the United States is Neural Tube Defect or NTD. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) NTD occur once in every 4,000 births. Obese women have a higher risk of having a baby with NTD than women that are not obese.

Neural Tube Defects are birth defects of the brain and spinal cord. There are specific cells developing in your baby that curl up and fuse their edges together. They form a narrow tube called the neural tube. Because this happens in the first 3 to 4 weeks of pregnancy, a woman might not even know that she is pregnant when this is going on.

The purpose of the neural tube is to protect the spinal cord and the brain as well as the bone and tissue that surround them. NTD occurs when the cells that are curling don’t make the connection or fuse somewhere along the length of the tube. There could be more than one opening or place that the connection didn’t happen. The type of defect that develops, its severity, the affect it will have on the baby and the possibility of problems in the future depends on where the opening is and what tissue is affected.

The two most common types of NTD are spina bifida or open skull and anencephaly or open brain.

What to expect if your baby is born with:

• Spina bifida – The symptoms vary greatly. Some babies may have no outward symptoms or signs except possibly a patch of hair, a dimple or a birthmark may appear on the lower spine. Others may have a fluid-filled sac on their back that ranges in size from grape to grape fruit. The sac is often covered by a thin layer of skin. The most serious of symptoms is a sac-like mass that bulges from the back. This sac may or may not be covered with a thin layer of skin. The nerves of the spinal column may or may not be exposed. Often time children born with spina bifida will have problems with bowel and bladder control. Some may suffer attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), hand-eye coordination, or other learning disabilities. It is not uncommon for a child born with spina bifida to also have hydrocephalus, or an enlarged head because of fluid build-up.
• Anencephaly – The symptoms can include absence of the bony covering over the back of the head, missing bones around the front and sides of the head, folding of the ears, cleft palate and congenital heart defects. Frequently the brain is missing the part that controls thought, vision, hearing, touch and movement. Babies with anencephaly are frequently stillborn or die shortly after birth.

Studies show that getting enough folic acid, a type of B vitamin, before and during their pregnancy and eating foods that include a lot of fruits, vegetables and whole grains before and during pregnancy can prevent most neural tube defects.

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