by Claudia Boyd-Barrett posted in Pregnancy

Avoiding blood pressure spikes during the later stages of pregnancy may help reduce your child?s risk of becoming obese, according to a new study.
High blood pressure during pregnancy is already known to increase the risk of problems such as cesarean birth, preterm birth and placental abruption. But the latest study by researchers in China and the United Kingdom indicates a new danger: elevated blood pressure in pregnancy may increase a baby?s risk of developing childhood obesity by up to 50 percent.
Scientists studied more than 88,000 mom-child pairs in southeastern China between 1999 and 2013. The moms? blood pressure was measured during each trimester of pregnancy. Then, researchers followed up with their children multiple times between ages 4 and 7. About 10 percent of the children became overweight or obese. The researchers discovered that, during the 2nd and 3rd trimesters, each 10-unit increase in a mom?s top (systolic) or bottom (diastolic) blood pressure number increased her child?s risk of obesity by 5 to 8 percent.

High blood pressure during the 2nd trimester was particularly troublesome, the researchers found. Among women whose blood pressure spiked above 140/90 during that period, their child?s risk of becoming obese increased 49 percent compared to children born to moms with lower blood pressure readings in the 2nd trimester.
In the 3rd trimester, a blood pressure reading above 140/90 resulted in a 14 percent in...