The issue regarding maternal weight during pregnancy, particularly in patients with Type 2 diabetes, is now taking much more of a centre stage. It is not just the fact that maternal weight influences the mother’s insulin sensitivity and therefore glucose control during pregnancy. We are beginning to learn more and more about the imprinting of obesity tendencies from the mother into the developing child which may manifest only much later in the life of that child. Children born to mothers who were overweight during pregnancy seem to have a higher risk of obesity themselves during childhood

This new field known as epigenetic has opened up a whole new area and way of thinking in Maternal-Foetal medicine. Pregnant woman can expect nowadays much more in depth information regarding how their weight, nutrition and diabetes control can cause genetic imprinting to translate into recognised disorders during the lifetime of their offspring and even in subsequent generations.