A recent study suggested that mothers who are obese at the time of their pregnancy have almost double chances of delivering a child with autism as compared to the ones who weigh less.

Published in the journal Pediatrics, the latest findings have also shown that the risk can become four times if a woman is obese and have diabetes during pregnancy.

As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), statistics have shown that nearly one in 68 children suffer from autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

In a news release, senior study author Dr. Xiaobin Wang, a public health and pediatrics researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said, “In terms of absolute risk, compared to common pediatric diseases such as obesity and asthma, the rate of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the U.S. population is relatively low, however, the personal, family and societal impact of ASD is enormous”.

To conduct the study, researchers studied data on nearly 3,000 mother-child pairs tracked at Boston Medical Center between 1998 and 2014. The results have shown that nearly 64% of the children suffered from a development disorder whereas 102 kids were diagnosed with ASD, and 137 were discovered to suffer from intellectual disabilities (ID).

Co-author M. Daniele Fallin, PhD, chair of the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health and director of the Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities, said that their research has shed light on the risk of autism beginning in utero. Fallin added that it is important for them to try to determine what is there in the combination of obesity and diabetes that is may be leading to sub-optimal fetal health.

As per researchers, though the link between autism and maternal health isn’t clear so far, inflammation, hormones and nutrients that are associated with diabetes could increase the vulnerability of the health problems that may have an effect on the brain of the fetus.