NEW research into obesity and pregnancy is under way after alarming reports that North-East mothers could be putting their lives at serious risk.

Levels of obesity in the region have been increasing above the national average, while the latest statistics show that 35 per cent of women who died during pregnancy were clinically overweight.

But exact data has been difficult to collect - because it is no longer fashionable to weigh pregnant women.

Now, the North-East Public Health Observatory (NEPHO) has joined forces with Teesside University's food and nutrition research group and the Regional Maternity Survey Office to look at the issue.

The "maternal obesity and pregnancy outcome" project is expected to be completed next month, with the findings published by the end of the year.

It will look at the impact of being obese during pregnancy on mothers and children, and complications encountered during and after labour.

Researchers will review current literature and analyse data being provided by the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough.

The study will also examine infant mortality, maternal obesity, infant and childhood obesity, maternity services and the cost implications.

Public Health Observatories were set up in 2000 to analyse a variety of data that is available across the UK

NEPHO director Dr John Wilkinson said: "Clinicians and maternity staff were becoming increasingly concerned about the numbers of obese mothers.

"Questions started to be raised about exactly what we knew about the situation.

"While there was anecdotal evidence, there was no exact data - it is no longer in vogue to weigh pregnant women because it is said to cause unnecessary anxiety, nor to measure their height, so we could not work out their body mass index."

He said they were looking to collect information to form a database against which a host of issues could be measured and compared.

These included congenital abnormalities, complications of childbirth, assisted labour and Caesareans and whether obesity in pregnancy leads to obese infants and children.

"This could be fundamental to the rise in obesity," said Dr Wilkinson. "It is really important to get a better understanding of the extent of this problem so that we can develop effective ways of dealing with it."