Relationship Between Maternal Obesity and Neonatal Iron Profile

Background: Obesity is negatively associated with neonatal iron status, several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the link between obesity and impaired iron status, including poor dietary intake, increased plasma volume, or impaired iron absorption in obese individuals.  
Objective: We aimed to find the association between maternal obesity and iron status in the newborn.
Patients and methods: This case-control prospective study that was carried out on 100 newborn infants; divided into two groups: Group I (obese mother group) included 50 neonates delivered to women with BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2. Group II (control mother group) included 50 neonates delivered to women with BMI ≤ 25 kg/m2.
Results: Our study showed statistically significant differences between the two studied groups regarding gravidity, parity, antenatal BMI, and neonatal birth weight. Also, there were statistically significant differences between the studied groups regarding neutrophils, lymphocytes, hemoglobin and serum ferritin. In contrast, the control group had a higher level of hemoglobin and serum ferritin when compared with the obese group. In neonates, there was a statistically significant difference between the studied groups regarding laboratory data. In contrast, the control neonate group had a higher level of hemoglobin, serum ferritin and serum iron when compared with the obese neonate group. Our study showed a significant positive correlation between neonatal serum iron, neonatal serum ferritin, neonatal hemoglobin and maternal serum ferritin. At the same time, there was a significant negative correlation between neonatal serum iron and maternal BMI and neonatal RBCs.
Conclusion: Our study reported the negative influence of maternal obesity on neonatal iron status.