Mother's Obesity A Factor In Newborn Deaths For Blacks, Not Whites, New Study Reports

“A study led by the University of South Florida sheds new light on obesity's role in the black-white gap in infant mortality. While maternal obesity appears to have no impact on the early survival of infants born to white women, the situation is different for black women, researchers report in the June 2008 issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. Infants of obese black mothers had a higher risk of death in the first 27 days following birth than newborns of obese white mothers, the researchers found. Furthermore, this black disadvantage in neonatal infant mortality widened with an increase in the body mass index (BMI). ‘Even if the infant of an obese black woman survives pregnancy, labor and delivery, that baby is at greater risk of dying than a baby born to an obese white woman,’ said the study's lead author Hamisu Salihu, MD, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology at the USF College of Public Health.”

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/110571.php