Modern life is too unhealthy for pregnancy

MODERN unhealthy lifestyles are leaving women illprepared for pregnancy, research suggests.

A study found that large numbers of young British women smoke, drink too much alcohol, are overweight or obese, and consume inadequate amounts of fruits and vegetables.

Researchers said those hoping to conceive should adopt a healthy lifestyle years in advance.

Writing in The Lancet, medics said the vast majority of women of reproductive age were not nutritionally prepared for pregnancy – putting the long-term health of their children at risk.

The survey, conducted between 2008 and 2012, found that 40 per cent of women aged 26 to 30 were overweight or obese. Some 70 per cent of this age group ate fewer than five portions of fruit and vegetables per day. This was also true of 91 per cent of younger women aged 18 to 25.

More than a third of women aged 26 to 30, and a third of those aged 18 to 25, were smokers, while 28 per cent of the younger age group consumed high-risk levels of alcohol.

Researchers calculated the proportion of women of reproductive age who were nutritionally prepared for pregnancy, using data from 509 women of reproductive age in the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey.

Some 96 per cent were found to have iron and folate dietary intakes below the recommendation for pregnancy. Such shortfalls can be tackled in less than a month.

But lead authors from University College London said more longer-term efforts were needed to tackle soaring levels of obesity among parents-to-be.

Prof Judith Stephenson, of University College London, the study’s lead author, said: “While the current focus on risk factors, such as smoking and excess alcohol intake, is important, we also need new drives to prepare nutritionally for pregnancy for both parents.”