Maternal early pregnancy obesity and related pregnancy and pre-pregnancy disorders: associations with child developmental milestones in the prospective PREDO Study

Previous studies have linked maternal pre-pregnancy obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) with suboptimal neurodevelopment in her offspring; however, the literature is not entirely consistent. Whether these effects are muddled by maternal self-reports of pre-pregnancy weight and height, or are driven or amplified by the well often comorbid hypertensive and diabetic pregnancy and pre-pregnancy disorders, remains unclear. We examined whether maternal early pregnancy obesity is associated with developmental delay in her offspring, and if the associations are driven or amplified by diabetic and hypertensive pregnancy and pre-pregnancy disorders. A total of 2504 mother-child dyads participated in the Prediction and Prevention of Pre-eclampsia and Intrauterine Growth Restriction (PREDO) study. Data on maternal early pregnancy obesity, pre-pregnancy, and gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia, type 1 and gestational diabetes were derived from the Finnish Medical Birth Register. At the child’s mean age of 42.1 (SD = 8.2) months the mothers completed the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) Third edition for developmental milestones. Children of obese mothers had 1.81–2.74 (p-values <0.02) higher odds of failing to meet the development that is typical for a child’s age (developmental domain score ≤−2SD below the child’s age) on the communication, fine and gross motor, problem solving and personal/social skills and children of overweight mothers had 2.14 (p = 0.002) higher odds of failing to meet the development that is typical for the child’s age on communication skills. Odds of developmental delay were also higher for children of mothers with pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes. The associations were robust to covariates and confounders, the effects of overweight/obesity and pre-eclampsia were not driven by the other disorders, and overweight/obesity and hypertensive and diabetic disorders did not show additive effects. Maternal early pregnancy overweight, obesity, and pre-eclampsia are independently associated with neurodevelopmental delay in her offspring. Further studies unraveling the underlying mechanisms are warranted.