Summary: Regular exercise during pregnancy and postpartum leads to health benefits for mother and child. Inactivity during pregnancy and after delivery is now treated as risky behavior. Physically active pregnant women significantly less often suffer from, among others, gestational diabetes, excessive weight gain, lipids disorders, hypertension, preeclampsia, depressive symptoms, functional and structural ...

Summary: The prevalence of maternal obesity is increasing rapidly worldwide and constitutes an important obstetric problem that increases mortality and morbidity in both mothers and infants. Obese women are prone to pregnancy complications such as gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), and children of obese mothers are more likely to develop cardiovascular and metabolic disease later in life. The risk of dev...

Summary: Gestational diabetes (GDM) is a form of diabetes that develops during pregnancy. GDM is associated with increased risks for pregnancy complications such as macrosomia s and preterm delivery. Women with a history of GDM have a high risk to develop a type 2 diabetes (T2DM) within the next ten years after delivery. The children are also at increased risk of developing obesity and T2DM later in life. ...

Summary: To determine and evaluate the diagnostic performance of Doppler sonography of umbilical artery (UA), fetal middle cereberal artery (MCA), ductus venosus (VD) and umbilical vein (UV) for prediction of adverse perinatal outcome among diabetic pregnant women.

Summary: Obstetric anal sphincter injury (OASIS) is a serious complication of a vaginal delivery. High proportion of women, 40-59%, suffer from faecal incontinence (FI) after this type of injury.1-3 OASIS and FI have a negative impact on women's quality of life.4 The rate of elective caesarean section at second birth was much higher in women with OASIS at first birth compared with women without the injury ...

Summary: Background Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a significant contributor to adverse obstetric and perinatal outcome. There is now clear and unequivocal evidence that adverse pregnancy outcomes are strongly linked to maternal hyperglycemia, both in the peri-conception period and throughout gestation. Although strict glycemic control does improve outcomes, there is still a higher rate of complications in wome...

Summary: Diabetic pregnancies are often complicated by placental dysfunction with reduced transfer of oxygen from the mother to the fetus, which may compromise fetal growth and organ development. In diabetic pregnancies, hyperinsulinemia and hyperglycemia very often leads to fetal macrosomia. The combination of reduced placental oxygen transfer and increasing fetal demand due to fetal overgrowth may posses...

Summary: Identifying modifiable factors that contribute to preeclampsia risk associated with assisted reproduction can improve maternal health. Recent studies have shown an increased risk for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy after in vitro fertilization, particularly for pregnancies occurring during a hormone replacement therapy such a donor egg recipient and a frozen embryo transfer. This risk may be p...

Summary: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), characterized by maternal high blood sugar, affects up to 15% of pregnancies worldwide. GDM doubles the risk of fetal growth (i.e. macrosomia, large fetus,) which further predisposes the affected fetus to elevated risks of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life. The placenta mediates macrosomia by increasing fat and glucose transport to the ...

Summary: One approach to prevent the rising burden of diabetes is to address the issue of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). GDM has a growing prevalence up to 5-10% (and even higher in specific subgroups), with a pregnant population becoming older and more obese worldwide. GDM increases the risks of complications during pregnancy, at delivery and on the longer term, like type 2 diabetes (T2D) and persis...

Summary: Studies evaluating lifestyle intervention in obese women during pregnancy have reported limited success in decreasing excessive gestational weight gain, and have failed to achieve the key outcome of breaking the obesity cycle and reducing neonatal adiposity or birth weight. Although some investigators advocate weight loss during pregnancy in obese women, these recommendations were based on extrapo...

Summary: The detection of and control of gestational diabetes carries benefits for both mother and baby related to immediate pregnancy outcomes. The glycemic disorders in diabetes are not solely limited to fasting and postprandial hyperglycemia, but can be extended to the glycemic variability that includes both upward (postprandial glucose increments) and downward (interprandial glucose decrements) changes...