Obesity in Pregnancy: Mechanisms, Risks, and Management

Call for Papers

The current epidemic of obesity impacts on all ages including children and women of child-bearing age. In the latest Health Survey for England, 23% of women over the age of 16 were obese and 25.8% were overweight. Increased maternal weight before, during, and after pregnancy is of concern since it is associated with an array of complications for both mother and baby. The confidential enquiries into maternal deaths (2004) found that 35% of women who died from any cause were obese. Furthermore, in its 2005 perinatal mortality report, CEMACH found a high proportion (30%) of stillbirths or neonatal deaths amongst mothers with a body mass index > 30. Compared with babies of normal weight women, babies born to obese women are 3.5 fold more likely to be admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Increased rates of obesity in pregnancy also result in greatly increased costs; obese women spend more time in hospital, and the increased complication rates and interventions represent a five-fold increase in the costs of antenatal care.

The optimal management of obesity in pregnancy is controversial, and currently no national consensus guidelines exist, reflecting the paucity of high quality clinical trials in this condition.

We invite researchers to contribute original research articles as well as review articles in this area. In particular, we are interested in articles describing risk stratification for obese and overweight pregnant women, novel interventions including dietary, lifestyle, motivational, and pharmacological approaches, and therapeutic goals and targets for these patients. Interventional trials for this group of patients have been sparse, and there is a need for good quality trial evidence to identify cost-effective interventions. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Recent developments in the understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of obesity in pregnancy
• Advances in genetics of obesity and the impact of pregnancy
• Latest developments in the obstetric management of these patients
• Evidence of effectiveness of different dietary and lifestyle approaches
• Role of pharmacological and surgical interventions including bariatric surgery
• Short-term and long-term outcomes for the offspring of mothers with obesity in pregnancy

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ije/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable:

Lead Guest Editor

• Steve Hyer, Department of Endocrinology, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, Sutton SM5 1AA, UK

Guest Editors

• Hassan Shehata, Department of Obstetric Medicine, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, Sutton SM5 1AA, UK
• Antoinette Johnson, Department of Obstetric Medicine, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, Sutton SM5 1AA, UK
• Jyoti Balani, Department of Endocrinology, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, Sutton SM5 1AA, UK
• Badreldeen Ahmed, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Fetomaternal Unit, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar