Going on a diet is bad for your foetus
By Tan Hui Leng, TODAY
SINGAPORE: Women who diet are doing a disservice to their foetuses
when they get pregnant.
According to foetal development guru Professor Peter Gluckman, it's
too late to stop dieting by the time you realise that you're
pregnant because foetal development starts from Day 1.
"How the baby is looked after from the moment of conception, when
it's just one egg, to birth in the neo-natal period can affect its
destiny for the rest of its life," said the director of Liggins
Institute at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
The problem of dieting mums-to-be is especially worrying in Asia,
said Prof Gluckman, who is in town to give a talk. A Japanese study
has shown that newborn babies are now 150g to 200g lighter than
those born 10 years ago, because their mothers are dieting.
During each pregnancy, expectant mothers should ideally gain about
10kg. "The foetus is preparing for its life after birth so
everything that the mother does sends signals to the foetus, which
tell the foetus about the world out there," said Prof
Gluckman.
And women who are undernourished would have smaller babies who may
suffer from health problems later on in life.
"Small babies are more likely to get obese because what they did is
to prepare themselves inside the womb for a world without much
food," he said.
Such nutritional signals, especially in early pregnancy, would turn
some genetic switches on or off for the rest of the child's life.
These would make the child more prone to storing fat so as to
prepare himself for the "threatened" world out there, he
added.
Those who only start taking care of their nutrition when they are
pregnant may be too late in reversing the course of action, studies
have found.
Compounded with a high-fat diet and sedentary lifestyle, these
children are even more likely to get obese - a cause of diabetes
and cardiovascular disease later in life.
Smaller babies also have less brain cells, particularly those
needed for memory and learning.
Similarly, women should not smoke during their pregnancy as this
would alter the child's lung development among other things, which
will change physically to adapt to a perceived world filled with
carbon monoxide.
Prof Gluckman, who chairs the World Health Organization technical
committee on optimising the outcomes of pregnancy, advises women to
have a balanced diet and maintain a reasonable Body Mass
Index.
Women also should not get pregnant four to five years after their
first period as they still need nutrients for growing.
Breastfeeding is recommended until the baby is six months old, he
said.
Parental involvement and stimulation in the first year of the child
is important, as is the intake of vitamin B12 and folate.
Stress would not affect the foetus, unless it is severe, such as
those triggered during a natural catastrophe, he added.
While small babies that are born as a result of undernourished
mothers may be at risk of obesity, it is also important not to
overfeed infants, he cautioned.
Prof Gluckman will be giving a talk about improving birth outcomes
and lifelong health this evening at the KK Women's and Children's
Hospital. For details, call 6235 9966. - TODAY /dt
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