Decreased maternal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity in very severely obese pregnancy: Associations with birthweight and gestation at delivery.

Background: The maternal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis (HPAA) undergoes dramatic activation during pregnancy. Increased cortisol and corticotrophin-releasing-hormone (CRH) associate with low birthweight and preterm labor. In non-pregnant obesity, the HPAA is activated but circulating cortisol levels are normal or lower than in lean women.

Associations between maternal level of education and occupational status with placental glucocorticoid regeneration and sensitivity.

Objectives: Low socio-economic status (SES) is associated with increased disease risk in the involved and the next generation. The effects of low maternal SES on the offspring may be initiated prenatally. We hypothesized that fetoplacental glucocorticoid exposure might mediate the links.

The risk of maternal obesity to the long-term health of the offspring.

The prevalence of maternal obesity has risen dramatically in recent years, with approximately one in five pregnant women in the UK now classed as obese (body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m(2) ) at antenatal booking. Obesity during pregnancy has been hypothesized to exert long-term health effects on the developing child through 'early life programming'. While this phenomenon has been well studied in a maternal undernutrition paradigm, the processes by which the programming effects of maternal obesity are mediated are less well understood.