Dr. Chris Agboghoroma, the Chief Consultant Obstetrician and gynaecologist at the National Hospital Abuja, has warned pregnant women against eating junk food to avoid delivering overweight babies.
Agboghoroma told the News Agency of Nigeria in an interview on Monday in Abuja that excessive weight gain during pregnancy could affect the baby’s weight.
He said that delivery could be difficult for expectant mothers if their unborn babies were overweight.
The gynaecologist, however, said that a woman being overweight during pregnancy had nothing to do with the baby being obese later in life.
He said that apart from their eating habits, genetic factors could be responsible for obesity in children.
He said: “Women who gain too much weight in pregnancy, they give birth to babies that are also overweight and that can be an issue, an area of concern for the mother when she wants to deliver, but it does not really affect subsequently the baby’s life, weather the baby will become obese because what makes the baby to develop his or her ideal body weight subsequently is more of genetic predisposition.
“It is true that many women have good appetite and they have a genetic disposition of being fat and their children can also inherit it from them.
“So when this children also cultivate the habit of eating, they also get fat like the mothers or like their parents.
“It is not because of that junk the mother ate but because of the genetic predisposition that is there that will make them become fat.
“Another thing is about habit.
“A mother who is used to taking a lot of junk foods will also buy for the baby.
“As she is buying snacks here and there, she will also be filling the baby’s pocket, lunch box with a lot of variety things.
“So as the mother is eating, the baby is eating.
“So both of them become chubby or obese.
“So you think it is something you carried along from pregnancy.
“It is habits that have developed out of the womb.”
The gynaecologist advised pregnant women to watch what they eat generally and take the supplements given to them at ante-natal clinics, which included folic acids, vitamins, iron.
He also advised them to ignore the belief that a pregnant woman must “eat for two”.
Agboghoroma, however, advised pregant women not to go hungry.
He said: “It is not true that because you are carrying two babies you must eat double ration.
“So long as you eat satisfactorily, that is just good enough.
“Do not eat or say I am eating for two then you take double ration.
“That is not right.
“If they can just eat what I will refer to as their normal diet, even if there is some snacks in between so that they don’t get hungry at all.
“A pregnant woman should not allow herself to get hungry at all.
“Hunger is not good in pregnancy because the baby at every time must have enough of sugar of glucose in the system for its brain development.”
The gynaecologist also advised pregnant women to avoid drinks that contain a lot of sugar such as soft drinks and also avoid snacks.
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