Hundreds of pregnant mothers will take anti-obesity pills in a new study aimed at creating smaller babies and lowering the risk for Caesarean sections.

Although it is aimed at helping obese woman have easier births, the study has a weight loss group riled up, calling it ‘disturbing.’

The three-year study will be completed at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital in the U.K., along with others in Coventry and Edinburgh.

The more than 400 pregnant moms involved, who are all obese, will not lose any weight in the process. The babies are the ones expected to get smaller from the pills.

Half of the women will take Metformin, which is used to treat diabetic, pregnant women. The drug reduces blood sugar levels passed onto babies in the womb.

The other half will take a placebo.

“The difficulty (for the moms) comes when you have been living in a particular way for years that is not healthy. To suddenly change to a different lifestyle is not easy to do,” Dr. Andrew Weeks, who is leading the trial, told The Telegraph.

“Lifestyle change takes time and we would always encourage this as well, but the use of Metformin gives us another option when the other is not realistic.”

But taking medication during pregnancy can often make women feel “uneasy” because of unknown risks, said Alison Wetton, CEO of U.K.-based All About Weight.

“The fact that the widely-used diabetes pill, Metformin, is being trialled to prevent obese babies being born to overweight mothers is disturbing to me, and I am sure (to) most other women as well.”

Another recent, controversial study found babies born by C-sections are more likely to be obese as young adults.

The reasoning is that infants not exposed to certain bacteria in the birth canal may take longer to receive certain microbes that could influence their metabolism.

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Other researchers have said much more study should be conducted before blaming obesity on C-sections.

With files from Reuters