A new study claims that mothers who choose to give birth by cesarean section may be putting their babies at risk for obesity and diabetes later in life.
The study showed that babies who were delivered only two weeks earlier are more likely to develop diabetes and become obese as they grow older.
This also means that conditions put them at greater risk of premature death because of the conditions they acquire.
Scientists warned that elective C-sections that are carried out too soon may endanger children.
According to the study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, babies born by cesarean section are more prone to problems with metabolism and hormones as well as the endocrine system that can lead to diabetes and a host of other diseases.
Professor Eyal Sheiner of Ben-Gurion University of Negev, Israel, who conducted the study said that hospitalizations up to the age of 18 involving endocrine and metabolic morbidity were found to be more common in the early term group in Compared to the term group, especially at five years of age and older.
Their researchers also found that children older than five had much higher rates of type I diabetes when they were born early. This is the way it develops in childhood and is not linked to lifestyle factors.
Researchers believe that babies born even a few weeks earlier may have long-term health and behavior problems.
