Pre-eclampsia linked to later heart disease: Two new British studies link the pregnancy condition pre-eclampsia with developing heart disease later in life. The first study finds that women who have had pre-eclampsia during pregnancy have a twofold risk of heart disease, and “women with a history of pre-eclampsia had an almost fourfold risk of high blood pressure and a twofold risk of fatal or non-fatal ischaemic heart disease, stroke and blood clots in later life.” The second study shows that doctors could predict which women were at risk of developing pre-eclampsia based on certain risk factors. Women with high pre-pregnancy blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels had a seven times greater risk of developing pre-eclampsia than those who did not. Overweight or obese women, and women with a family history of high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes were also at a greater risk, and those women who took the pill before pregnancy reduced their risk.

Like mother like child: A new study suggests that excess weight in the mother before and during pregnancy may influence a child’s tendency to be fat. Mothers with higher body-mass index before pregnancy and a larger upper-arm circumference later in pregnancy correlated with the child’s height-adjusted fat mass measurements. Likewise, mothers with a lower body-mass index before pregnancy and a smaller upper-arm circumference later in pregnancy correlated to children with less body fat. “Further research is needed to determine if this association is from the effect of a mother’s excess weight prior to pregnancy; the effect of a mother’s lifestyle on that of her child; or a genetic factor passed from mother to child.”

More heavy news: A mother’s body-mass index at the time she becomes pregnant correlates with symptoms like hyperactivity and concentration problems in the child, says a new study. In addition, being overweight before pregnancy and gaining a considerable amount of weight during pregnancy comes with greater risks than being of normal weight and experiencing the same weight gain. “The next step for these scientists is to study whether there is a causal connection between the mothers’ obesity and symptoms in the child and, if so, what this is due to. One plausible explanation is that the risk of complications during pregnancy is greater among overweight women…It is also possible that both the mother’s obesity and the child’s symptoms are the result of genetic factors.”