Health risks increase as newborns get heavier

Almost one in six boys weighs more than four kilograms at birth due to a sharp drop in the number of women smoking during pregnancy and a rise in maternal age and cases of gestational diabetes. But experts fear the trend could lead to a generation of children whose life expectancies plunge as they battle obesity-related illnesses from birth.

Researchers at the University of Sydney and Royal North Shore Hospital (Australia) studied NSW Midwives Data Collection reports on babies born after 37 weeks gestation and found mean birth weight had increased 23 grams for boys and 25 grams for girls.

But contrary to the idea that big babies were healthy babies, high birth weight could have serious lifelong consequences, researcher Ruth Hadfield said.

“There is evidence of a relationship between high birth weight and the increased future risk of asthma, type 1 diabetes and a number of cancers, including infant and childhood leukaemia, and breast, prostate and colon cancer,” she said.