How helpful is averting maternal compl by suppl Metformin from mid preg till birth of baby??

Courtesy:-The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

How helpful is averting maternal compl by suppl Metformin from midpreg till birth of baby??

Disadvantage 1:-Treating obese pregnant women with a diabetes drug does not stop their babies from being born overweight, according to a study published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. Use of Metformin during Pregnancy has no effect on baby’s birth weight. What was doctors expectation??   Doctors hoped that the treatment would help to reduce obesity rates and lower the number of difficult births. Why overweight neonate is a matter of concern ?? Heavier babies are more likely to grow into 1) overweight adults. They also have a higher 2)  risk of illnesses later in life, such as 3) diabetes and 4)  heart disease. It is thought that the additional weight gain in the womb is caused by exposure to excess blood sugar. Researchers tested whether treating overweight mothers-to-be with the diabetes drug metformin would reduce the weight of their babies.

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No beneficial effect : There was no difference in the weight of babies born to mothers who received the treatment compared with a group of 223 women who received placebo. Metformin also had no effect on the number of birth complications, such as miscarriages and still births.

What help was achieved by suppl of metformin then?? The treatment did help to 1) reduce blood sugar levels in the mothers-to-be. 2)  It also helped to lower the levels of other markers that have been linked to pre-eclampsia and 3) premature births.

Researchers concluded that there is a  need to follow the babies involved in the study for longer to determine whether the treatment lowers their chances of developing other health problems in later life.

A)SOURCE: University of Edinburgh

 “The children of obese pregnant women face a lifetime of long term health complications as they grow up,” Jane Norman, MD, Centre for Maternal and Fetal Health, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. “The results of the EMPOWaR study emphasise the importance for women to be of normal weight before pregnancy.”

SOURCE: University of Edinburgh