Weight linked to overdue babies

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Naomi Hutson's son, Aiden, was born after an emergency caesarean.

Naomi Hutson’s son, Aiden, was born after an emergency caesarean. Photo: Joe Armao

Overweight women can fail to respond to signals in the body that trigger labour, explaining why they have higher rates of induced labour and caesarean births, Melbourne researchers have found.

The finding, which provides a major insight into how labour develops, follows an analysis of uterine tissue collected from 70 women who had caesarean births at the Royal Women’s Hospital.

Tissue samples were taken from women whose weight ranged from normal to very overweight, who had either a planned or emergency caesarean as part of the study, published in the journal Nature Communications.

Naomi Hutson's son, Aiden, was born after an emergency caesarean.

Naomi Hutson’s son, Aiden, was born after an emergency caesarean. Photo: Joe Armao

Lead researcher Helena Parkington, of Monash University’s school of biomedical sciences, found electrical signals in the uterine muscle cells prevented women from going into labour prematurely.