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According to the Los Angles Times:

Women who had diabetes or hypertension or were obese were 1.61 times as likely as healthy women to have children with autism spectrum disorders. They also were 2.35 times as likely to have children with developmental delays.

"If there is anything you can do to make yourself healthier, this is yet another reason for moms to consider," said Paula Krakowiak, a researcher at the University of California, Davis, who led the study told Reuters.

According to the study, about 60 percent of childbearing age women in the United States are overweight with one third of the classified as obese.

Monday’s release of the study comes a month after another study putting the autism rate at 1 in 88 U.S. children, up from 1 in 110 U.S. children.

Experts cautioned that the UC Davis study appears to show an association between maternal obesity and autism, not necessarily a direct, finite correlation.