Table 1.

Pre-pregnancy obesity-related risks to women and offspring.

Period	Women	Offspring
Before conception	Menstrual cycle dysregulation, anovulation and infertility (11)	–
Pregnancy	Miscarriage (12) Gestational diabetes mellitus (13) Pregnancy-induced hypertension (14, 15) Preeclampsia (16) Thrombo-embolism (17)	Congenital defects (18, 19) Premature birth (20) Large for gestational age Macrosomia (>4,000 g) (21)
Delivery	Cesarean sections Labor induction, surgical complications and failures of epidural analgesia (3, 22–26)	Stillbirth (24, 27) Neonatal trauma (assisted vaginal delivery and head trauma, shoulder dystocia) (7, 28) Low umbilical arterial pH < 7.1 and low Apgar score at 5 and 10 min (7)
Postpartum	Difficulties in initiating and sustaining breastfeeding (29)	Systematic transfer to monitoring in case of GDM (risk of hypoglycemia) (7) Increased admission rate in the intensive care unit (30)
Long-term	Postpartum weight retention and inter-pregnancy obesity (31, 32) Type 2 diabetes Long-term vascular dysfunction (14, 15)	Childhood obesity and premature metabolic syndrome (33) Premature death from cardiovascular disease (22)