Obesity and smoking link to infant death, study shows

A study of babies who died during labour or within seven days of birth has found that 21% of the mothers were smokers and 42% were either overweight or obese.

Maternal smoking, obesity and timely booking to an ante-natal clinic or a midwife during pregnancy are all areas which could be improved, according to the first detailed study of the deaths of babies during labour.

It analysed 81 intrapartum foetal deaths from 2011 to 2014 as well as 36 unexpected neonatal deaths from 2012 to 2014 where the baby died within seven days of birth. The report found major congenital malformation accounted for 36 deaths of the foetus in labour, while a bacterial infection, chorioamnionitis, was responsible for 18 deaths.