Perinatal nutrition and metabolic disease

Abstract With the worldwide increase in overnutrition rates, maternal obesity during pregnancy has also increased. This condition is related to increasing incidence of pregnancy and delivery complications, and it is associated to long-term vulnerability of the offspring to suffer metabolic impairments. In addition, nutrition of the newborn through maternal breast milk could be influenced by the nutritional status of the mother, thus adding another factor to be analyzed. In this chapter, we analyze how maternal obesity during pregnancy and composition of maternal milk can affect the newborn metabolic features. Then we discuss, using approaches in animal models and humans, how these alterations could be projected to the adult descendants. Finally, we discuss some of the possible treatments of maternal obesity with the aim to prevent the alterations in offspring.