Results
We approached 105 pregnant women
(n=85 with BMI≥30kg/m2 and n=20 with BMI
20-25kg/m2) and of those, 70 obese and 16 normal BMI
women agreed to take part. Those
who attended at least two out of the three research visits, with known
pregnancy outcome, were included in the study which comprised 64 women
with BMI≥30kg/m2 and 14 women with normal BMI. All
women delivered a live, phenotypically normal neonate. The maternal
characteristics and pregnancy outcomes of the study population are given
in Table 1. There were no significant differences in the maternal
demographic characteristics between the study groups except for maternal
booking BMI, as expected.
Haemodynamic function
Compared to the normal BMI group, women with obesity had higher systolic
BP, diastolic BP and HR in each trimester and in the overall analysis.
Similarly, CO and SV were higher and PVR lower in the obese compared to
the normal BMI group, in each trimester and overall (Table 2, Table S1
and Figure 1). SV and CO trended up in both groups with a significant
increase in CO from the first to the third trimester (Table S2).