Wu XX, Ge RX, Huang L, et al. - Maternal obesity was linked to increased risk for congenital heart defects (CHDs) and pregestational diabetes (PGDM) partially mediated the link between maternal obesity and CHDs.

• The authors used data from the Birth Cohort in Shenzhen (BiCoS) to include 53,708 mother-infant pairs that gave birth between 2017 and 2019.

• The proportion of obese people in the BiCoS was 2.11%.

• Overall, 372 (0.69%) newborns were identified with CHDs.

• Obesity in mothers was linked to an increased risk of CHDs.

• The role of PGDM in mediating the link between maternal obesity and CHDs was shown to be considerable.

• The estimated proportion of mediation was 24.83%.