A comparative study was conducted in Kuwait’s Maternity Hospital to investigate the consequences of obesity on pregnancy, labor and fetal outcome. Kuwaiti mothers were selected from the labor wards’ registration every fifth day during the first 3 months of 1990. The 290 selected subjects were structurally interviewed on their first postnatal day. According to the skinfold method used, 55.5% of the subjects were found to be obese. Maternal age and parity were found to be significantly (p < 0.01) associated with fat percentage. After controlling for the effects of age and parity, prepregnancy hypertension was highly associated with fat percentage (p < 0.001). The rates of preeclampsia and multiple pregnancy among obese women were higher. All known diabetic women in this series were obese. Gestational diabetes was significantly (p < 0.05) higher among obese patients. Prolonged labor was more likely in obese than non-obese primiparas (p < 0.05). Obese women were 1.6 times more liable to have induced labor and 5 times more likely to have large-for-dates babies than non-obese patients. It is recommended that public awareness about the hazards of obesity to both mother and fetus be promo