Parent’s health plays an important role in the health of the newborn child. A recent study talks about how the health of mother and father lead to healthy gestation and birth of their child. The researchers carefully monitored 786,000 births and came to the conclusion that the poor health status of the father resulted in low birth weight and preterm birth of the child ending up spending more time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
Dr. Alex Kasman is a resident physician at Stanford University Hospital and the leader of this research study. He suggested that the health status of the father should be taken seriously before conception because both the baby and mom could be affected by it.
The detailed findings of the study are published in the journal Fertility and Sterility.
The data from the research was reviewed and it was failed to prove that these situations are created by the health of the father but only an association was predicted.
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Fathers facing problems like obesity, hypertension, high sugar level, stress or cancer were at risk of twenty-eight percent complications of keeping babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), twenty-three percent complications of having babies with low weight, and nineteen percent complications of having a premature child.
The results also showed that wives of the men who were not enjoying good health were at a risk of facing gestation problems like preeclampsia and high sugar level due to gestation.
The effect of dad’s health on the health of the infant was not certain but Kasman found that the health of the dad has an impact on the genes. As dads share half genetic information so health may or may not affect gene expression.
Kasman added that placental health which could be affected by the health of the father can cause alterations in the delivery because not only toxins and smoking (environmental factors) affect sperm quality but a poor health status may play a negative role in this regard.
Medical experts believe that genetics, in general, has a high impact on the health of the infants but that not confirm. Kasman found that there is a higher risk of pregnancy problems in a couple with poor health but can still give birth to a healthy child.
The chief medical and health officer, Dr. Rahul Gupta at the March of Dimes gave a notion that may both father and mother have poor health as a fat man will probably marry a fat woman and suggested that they both may have hypertension and diabetes, the after-effects of obesity.
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Gupta also admitted that dad’s health affects the sperm quality and ultimately the health of the newborn baby. Both fathers and mothers should receive regular prenatal care before and during pregnancy if they wish to have a healthy baby. Gupta added that many improvements have done to provide regular prenatal care for mothers and to have healthy babies’ involvement of fathers is still needed before conceiving the child and during gestation.
The study concludes that both parents need to improve their health before conception and during gestation if they wish to have a healthy baby.