Pregnancy management following bariatric surgery

Bariatric surgery is gaining in popularity, due to globally increasing rates of obesity. In the UK, this has manifested as a 14-fold increase in bariatric surgery between 2004 and 2010, making it necessary to develop strategies to manage women who become pregnant following bariatric surgery. This review paper has explored all the current evidence in the literature and provided a comprehensive management strategy for pregnant women following bariatric surgery. The emphasis is on a multidisciplinary team approach to all aspects of care. Adequate pre-conception and antenatal and postnatal care is essential to good pregnancy outcomes with emphasis on appropriate nutritional supplementation. This is especially important following malabsorptive procedures. There is no evidence to suggest that pregnancy outcome is worse after bariatric surgery, though women who remain obese are prone to obesity-related risks in pregnancy. Neonatal outcome post-bariatric surgery is no different from the general population.