INTRODUCTION Obesity is common among women of childbearing age; intrauterine exposure to maternal obesity or gestational weight gain may influence the development of asthma in early childhood. We examined the relationships of maternal obesity and gestational weight gain with asthma in offspring. METHODS We used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, which has a nationa...

BACKGROUND We aimed to determine whether the association between obesity and a range of adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes differed in South Asian and Australian and New Zealand born women. METHODS A retrospective cohort study of singleton births in South Asian (SA) and Australian/New Zealand (AUS/NZ) born women at an Australian hospital between 2009 and 2013. The interaction between mat...

OBJECTIVE To identify possible mechanisms linking obesity in pregnancy to increased fetal adiposity and growth, a unique mouse model of maternal obesity associated with fetal overgrowth was developed, and the hypothesis that maternal obesity causes up-regulation of placental nutrient transporter expression and activity was tested. METHODS C57BL/6J female mice were fed a control (C) or a high-...

BACKGROUND Understanding associated risk for obesity is a prerequisite to develop early life interventions to arrest the increasing epidemic of metabolic syndrome and obesity among preterm born children and adolescents. FINDINGS A retrospective review of 160 charts was conducted to determine the associated risk of being obese during childhood and adolescent period in preterm children. Birth w...

Background: Some studies reported similar effect estimates for the impact of maternal smoking in pregnancy and paternal smoking on childhood obesity, whereas others suggested higher effects for maternal smoking. We performed a meta-analysis to compare the effect of in utero exposure to maternal smoking and that of paternal or household smoking exposure in utero or after birth with mutual adjust...

BACKGROUND High maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) is associated with increased risk of offspring attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the role of unmeasured familial confounding for this association remains unclear. METHODS We conducted a population-based cohort study via linkage of Swedish national and regional registers to investigate maternal pre-pregnancy B...

Currently in developed nations, childhood obesity is generating widespread concern and prompting social and institutional responses. Obesity is constructed as a broad public health crisis, but individuals are constructed as responsible for their own bodies and body sizes within this crisis. We are particularly interested in two aspects that focus on women as central to this phenomenon; the firs...