Having children 'increases risk of metabolic syndrome'

For many women, giving birth is one of the greatest moments of their lives as they welcome a son or daughter into the world, but new research has shed light on a possible downside of this event.

According to a new study by the University of Alabama (UAB), women who bear children are more likely to go on to develop metabolic syndrome.

The condition results in abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, insulin resistance and other cardiovascular disease risk factors, and experts at the facility believe that giving birth is directly linked to its development.

In addition, the specialists told health insurance customers that for women who have had gestational diabetes, the risk is more than twice as high.

The research has been published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and was led by UAB professor of preventive medicine Cora Lewis.

She told health cover holders that pregnancy can have lasting, adverse physiological effects and may result in behavioural changes, pointing to previous studies making a link between childbearing, metabolic syndrome and gestational diabetes.

"Many have not had control groups of women who had not had pregnancies and thus they have rarely provided conclusive evidence linking pregnancy-related risk factor changes to disease onset," she stated.

For the new study, professor Lewis used data collected in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults programme to determine the correlation between a higher incidence of the metabolic syndrome among women.

She found that women who gave birth to one child had a 33 per cent greater chance of developing the syndrome, with those who had more than one child having a 62 per cent greater risk.

"Our findings suggest that childbearing can contribute to the development of the metabolic syndrome and that part of the association may be through weight gain and lack of physical activity," the healthcare expert concluded.

By Stephen Tate

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