Favorable and optimal pregnancy outcomes depend on women entering pregnancy with full nutrient stores, sound eating habits, and healthy body weight. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of at least three of the five medical conditions: raised fasting plasma glucose, abdominal obesity, high serum triglycerides, low serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and high blood pressure. Current knowledge about MetS in pregnancy is limited, but is generally accepted that obesity increases the risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and preeclampsia (PE). Both of these are associated with an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in women later in their life. Mets during pregnancy can result in complications during pregnancy and can affect the birth outcomes resulting in preterm birth (PB) and fetal growth restriction (FGR) escalating the risk for perinatal mortality and morbidity as well as increasing the chance of developing chronic disease later in life. Identifying early in pregnancy the unfavourable maternal conditions that can predict poor birth outcomes could help their prevention and management and will warrant a close follow-up for these women from long-term complications. Hence the development of context- and population-specific indicators that define the MetS risk in this population is important to reduce the consequence.
This study aims to investigate the consequences of MetS during pregnancy on birth outcomes in southwest Ethiopia.