Active clinical trials for "Obesity, Maternal"

The goal of this study is to see if there are negative effects of maternal obesity during pregnancy on offspring's brain development.

Today the majority of pregnant women in the United States are either overweight or obese at conception with their offspring having greater adiposity at birth, a 2-fold greater risk of later obesity, and neonatal insulin resistance. It was long thought that breast milk composition was fairly uniform among women, having been optimized through evolutionary time to provide adequate sole nutrition for the growing infant regardless of the environmental circumstances. However, recent evidence shows that breast milk is a highly complex fluid with significant inter-individual variation in hormonal and cytokine concentrations. Pervasive maternal obesity is an evolutionarily novel condition for the human species but little effort has yet been made to systematically examine how this novel condition is associated with breast milk adipose-tissue derived hormone and cytokine (adipocytokine) variation, or whether that variation relates to infant metabolic status. The objective of this study is to comprehensively assess the "lactational programming" hypothesis, that is, whether or not recently documented variation in breast-milk composition is related to both maternal adiposity and to infant metabolic status. The central hypothesis is that a graded, dose-response relationship between maternal adiposity and adipocytokine concentrations in breast milk exists and that milk adipocytokine concentrations are associated with altered body composition in their exclusively breast-fed offspring. The results of the study will be used to design interventions to reduce maternal weight during pregnancy and lactation and to augment lactation education materials to focus on the needs of obese breast-feeding women.

Knowledge on the changes in myocardial function in the last weeks before birth and during the first year of life is limited. Through fetal and post-natal echocardiography we intend to describe these changes using myocardial tissue recognition techniques (Speckle tracking echocardiography and Tissue Doppler echocardiography) in healthy neonates, born to term of healthy women after uncomplicated pregnancies. We will compare the findings in this cohort to a cohort of neonates born to term of women with severe pre-pregnancy obesity. Sick neonates in intensive care units with various cardiac and non-cardiac conditions are often exposed to treatment that may affect both their cardiac function and important echo-variables per se. Using echocardiography, we will examine these changes in neonates treated with blood transfusion, catecholamines and in those treated with Ibuprofen due to a haemodynamic significant arterial duct.

Pregnant women with obesity will be invited to participate in structured home-based exercise programme, remotely monitored

Background: Although breastfeeding has known protective effects, such as preventing childhood obesity, the specific mechanisms remain unclear. Idaho has a high breastfeeding initiation rate (92%) but a significant prevalence of childhood obesity (30.5% overweight/obese). Limited research exists on the impact of maternal inflammation, maternal body mass index (BMI), C-reactive protein (CRP), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) concentrations in breastmilk on infant health outcomes, especially in healthy full-term infants. Objective: This study aims to expand understanding of the role of maternal inflammation on breastmilk composition and its effect on infant immune development. The investigators seek to investigate the relationship between maternal health status, breastmilk inflammatory concentrations, and balanced immune development in infants. Additionally, the investigators aim to explore the potential influence of early diet exposure, including maternal inflammatory status, on the risk of obesity and other inflammatory conditions. Methods: Healthy full-term infants (breastfed/formula-fed) and their mothers will be recruited. Maternal inflammation markers (BMI, CRP, IL-6) and immune markers in infants will be analyzed. Flow cytometry will assess immune populations. Correlations between maternal systemic inflammation, infant inflammation, and breastmilk inflammatory markers will be examined for breastfeeding mothers. Outcomes: The investigators hypothesize breastfed infants will display a more favorable anti-inflammatory profile. This study will identify factors influencing immune development and potential pathways linking early-life exposures to long-term health outcomes. Findings will inform strategies for promoting balanced immune development and elucidate the role of early diet exposure, including maternal inflammation, as a protective or risk factor for obesity and inflammatory conditions.

Obesity is becoming more common and disproportionately affects the younger generation, the poor and certain ethnic groups. Nearly 50% of reproductive aged women are obese or overweight. Obesity during pregnancy leads to higher rates of hypertensive disorders, stillbirth, less successful breastfeeding, obesity in their offspring, postpartum depression, and higher weight retention postpartum. Dietary counseling can prevent excessive maternal weight gain and is more effective than activity-based interventions. The two objectives of this study are 1) to use community-based techniques to improve dietary counseling for high risk women and 2) to randomize obese women to dietary counseling at Truman Medical Center and measure their success. The hypothesis is that dietary interventions can successfully be tailored for high risk women and that excessive weight gain during pregnancy can be avoided.

The researcher will study a group of pregnant Barbadians with BMI at booking of greater than or equal to 35. All of the women will be given leaflets telling them about healthy diets in pregnancy and how to limit weight gain. Half of the women will be sent to the dietitian for small group classes on diet and how to limit weight gain. The two groups of women will be compared to see which group gains more weight and which group has more complications during the pregnancy.

The prevalence of obesity in the developed world has increased markedly over the last 20 years. Considering the prevalence of obese and overweight adult subjects, and the fact that pregnancy itself induces a state of insulin resistance and inflammation, maternal obesity may be the most common health risk for the developing fetus. It is well established that what we eat has a major impact on our health. However, there is growing evidence to suggest that diet during pregnancy and lactation may be particularly important as not only does it influence the health of the mother, it may have a permanent effect on the health of her children and even her grandchildren. The concept that environmental factors, such as nutrition during early development, influence both our health span and lifespan has been termed the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis. The objective of the study are: to compare subjects with frailty (condition developed with ageing) with controls and characterize the unhealthy aged condition with the measurements described below to examine if signs of frailty can be reversed by lifestyle induced modifications (exercise training programme) of its primary components (IR, sarcopenia, psychological profile) in offspring of overweight/obese (OOM) vs lean mothers (OLM). The study consists of 37 frail old subjects, age ≥ 65 sub-grouped in 17 OOM, and 20 OLM and 11 non frail controls. These subjects will be studied with positron emission tomography (PET), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS) and ultra sounds (US). In addition functional MRI (fMRI) will be performed. Adipose tissue biopsies will be taken. Subjects will undergo characterization of biohumoral markers, a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test, imaging biomarkers (PET/CT, US, fMRI-MRS), genetic biomarkers (DNA and telomere damage) and inflammatory biomarkers (macrophage infiltration) before and after the 4-month lifestyle intervention period (physical exercise). By PET/CT it will be measured tissue-specific IR in skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, liver, myocardium and targeted brain regions. MRS will be used to measure organ steatosis in the skeletal muscle and liver, MRI will be used to measure fat masses in abdominal areas, and fMRI will be performed to assess activation in brain regions regulating cognition and appetite/energy control. US will be used to assess cardiovascular markers (IMT, strain and function).

Aim of the study was to determine if signaling pathways in placentas of mothers affected by overweight/obesity or by gestational diabetes are altered compared to placentas of a control group (normal weight, no gestational diabetes). Moreover, maternal blood and umbilical cord blood were analysed.

The rate of obesity increases continuously in France as in many developing countries.The risk of cesarean delivery is increased in obese compared to normal-weight women and postpartum complications as infections, thromboembolic events and related maternal death, are more common among obese women who deliver by cesarean than both normal-weight women with caesarean deliveries and obese women with vaginal deliveries. Unfortunately, obesity is associated with a higher rate of failed induction requiring a cesarean delivery and especially in nulliparous. Methods of induction for obese women have to be improved to decrease the c-section rate but investigators should also be cautious on the type and dose of PG not to affect the neonatal wellbeing associated with uterine hyperstimulation. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the efficacy of the association of mechanical and pharmacological cervical ripening (balloon catheter plus 50 µg oral prostaglandin E1) versus pharmacological cervical ripening alone (50 µg oral prostaglandin E1) to reduce the rate of caesarean sections in nulliparous obese women.