Tuesday, British researchers informed that obese women were more prone to giving birth to children with spina bifida, heart problems, cleft palate, among other defects.

Their findings, which were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, have shed light upon the part obesity plays as a major health condition, while they also underline the fact that being obese while pregnant poses threats for both the mother and the infant.

For the research, Katherine Stothard and colleagues from Britain's Newcastle University combined the data from 18 studies in order to investigate the risk of birth defects in babies whose mothers were overweight or obese while pregnant.

The results showed that obese women were almost twice as likely to deliver an infant with neural tube defects, which are caused by incomplete development of either the brain or the spinal cord.

Moreover, for one of these defects, spina bifida, the risk was found to be more than doubled.

Researchers further discovered increased risk of heart defects, cleft lip and palate, water on the brain, as well as issues concerning the growth of arms and legs.

Nevertheless, scientists have said that given the fact that birth abnormalities affected only approximately two to four percent of pregnancies, the overall risk of birth defects in babies with obese mothers during pregnancy remained low.

Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 400 million people around the world are obese, of whom 20 million are under the age of five.