Pregnancy and bariatric surgery

A large number of women experience pregnancy after bariatric surgery. The purpose of this review was to understand the evidence base in this area to come up with practical, evidence-based recommendations.

We examined PubMed for all published articles on pregnancy in patients who have previously undergone a bariatric surgery.

There is an increasing body of evidence pointing towards a beneficial effect of weight loss induced by bariatric surgery on female and male fertility prompting calls for recognition of infertility as a qualifying co-morbidity for patients between the Body Mass Index of 35.0 kg/m2 and 40.0 kg/m2. Women in childbearing age group should be routinely offered contraceptive advice after bariatric surgery and advised to avoid pregnancy until their weight has stabilized. Until more focused studies are available, the advice to wait for 12 months or 2 months after the weight loss has stabilized, whichever is latter, seems reasonable. Patients should be advised to seek clearance from their bariatric teams prior to conception and looked after by a multi-disciplinary team of women health professionals, bariatric surgeons, and dietitians during pregnancy. The main objective of care is to ensure adequate nutritional state to allow for a satisfactory weight gain and fetal growth.

There is a relative lack of studies and complete lack of Level 1 evidence to inform practice in this area. This review summarizes current literature and makes a number of practical suggestions for routine care of these women while we develop evidence to better inform future practice.