Woman Deemed 'Too Fat' for Pregnancy

This is horrific and bizarre and makes me embarassed to be Australian. I weighed around this weight when I gave birth to my daughter who was a healthy middle-sized baby. My weight was never mentioned ever by my OB. Recently (I'm 41) we consulted a perinatologist in regard to us having another child (I weigh 244) and he said go ahead you are perfectly healthy. He again did not mention weight and when we asked if he would be doing the delivery (if we should get pregnant) he said no, I only do high risk pregnancies. I cannot imagine that anybody would ask a woman to lose weight at any stage of pregnancy and how could BMI be in any way accurate. I think I lost 20 pounds of fluid in the days after I gave birth.

I saw this on the news last night and was fairly shocked to say the least. What is she supposed to do now? Give birth at home on her own?? I am sure that would be VERY dangerous. It was heartbreaking to see this poor women being interviewed and the reporter was getting her to say things like "I felt so humiliated" etc. Apparently she has only gained 4 kg over the entire pregnancy, so it's not like her weight was a big surprise to any one involved :( IMHO asking anyone to purposely LOSE weight during a pregnancy is a VERY bad idea.

This is just nuts. If they really believe her weight is a risk, the solution would be to get her care in a high risk OB facility, not tell her to lose weight! That is dangerous, to her and the baby. "Fat mom" is NOT an independent risk factor for pregnancy, is it? "Skinny mom" is. I think we may already have a problem with low-birth-weight babies in the US out of proportion to the population. When so many women diet to amennorhea, and are proud of it, how much disordered thinking do they go into pregnancy with? The way the piece is written, I do not know if the woman mentioned has any real risks. I fault the reporter for not finding another OB voice, maybe one independent of this hospital. Who knows, maybe she did, but they would not speak on the record, though that should not have stopped her. She was willing to quote "Lisa" and her hearsay about the hospital employee. But Dr. Longmore did NOT disagree with the alleged advice to lose nearly 20 pounds. He should have disagreed, vociferously. If Lisa had some serious condition that caused her to suddenly retain water, mess up her electrolytes, et cetera, well, that is not "overweight", it may be an imminent medical emergency. If that were the case, then saying, "go home and lose some weight" is even more nuts. The employee in question may have been doing this wrongheaded, perhaps criminally negligent, gatekeeping for months, or years. How much unknown damage may have been done?

This is one of the most bizarre stories I have ever read. What type of trained medical worker tells a pregnant woman to lose weight? I weighed about 275 when I gave birth to my first child and 300 when I had my second child. They were both incredibly smooth labors -- totally natural, no medication -- and I went home from the hospital 12 hours after delivering. I had absolutely no prolems with blood pressure or anything else during labor. And, despite my size, both my babies were right around average size (7-1/2 pounds). After my first delivery, my midwife (who worked both in and out of hospitals) suggested to me that I would be a good candidate for a home birth if I had another baby. Surely she didn't think I was high risk if she suggested that.

I know of a few women who were harrassed about weight to the point of normal birth not being "allowed" (they had to schedule a c-section) so they gave birth at home with a midwife. One woman weighed about 400 at term and gave birth normally at home to a healthy baby. She was refused everywhere else. I refused to get on a scale during prenatal visits, but I do think my weight had to do with the OBs decision to do a section at the last minute.

With a little bit of luck, she'll ditch the OB, stay at home with a midwife and avoid a c-section as a result of fat prejudice (note: giving birth on her own at home is probably not the best thing, but if she's in goood health, it's probably safer than the c-section that probably awaits here at the hospital). This just pisses me off. I wish there was more info because I'm pretty sure there are alternatives out there for her.

She needs a new doctor—one who isn't bigoted.  It's that simple. -Qit

She was healthy and the rejection by the hospital was based soley on her BMI crossing the magic 40. Had she HAD high blood pressure or uncontrolled gestational diabetes or some other high risk factor, then it would be understandable that they would want her to deliver her baby at a hospital that has the facilities and trained personnel should anything go wrong. But then, why would ANY woman want to have their baby at a hospital that's not capable of handling problems in the baby or mother? She'll probably have a safer delivery by going to one of the other two hospitals in Melbourne that ARE, although whether her insurance allows her to, her OB doctor wants to, and the out-of-pocket expenses are the same are unknown. I SO hope she knows the danger of dieting during pregnancy and that this experience doesn't lead her to do something like that that could hurt her baby.

Mother Nature: "This woman is healthy enough to be preganant. Have at it, beautiful manifestation of my feminine power!" Crazy medical people: "We know better than God." Luckily, her body knows what to do, and with a midwife, she'll likely be fine. Obnoxious as the doctor's attitude is, this rejection of her personhood might end up being a gift for the woman, who has the option of giving up seeking permission to exist from the profiteering medical industry and instead go on and live joyfully without their abuses and malfeasance.

My mother experienced something similar when she was pregnant with me in the late 1970s. She was 5'6" and between 170 and 180 lbs at the beginning of the pregnancy, but she was told that if she wanted to avoid a C-section, she'd have to lose weight during her pregnancy. She didn't actually lose weight, but she didn't gain any either, which is ridiculous since I was an 8+ lb baby. It was asinine then, and it's asinine now.

The other factor here is that this is probably a small hospital out in the bush. She is much better off going to Melbourne and having her baby at a world famous hospital like Monash, which is better than most U.S. hospitals (I have been there). On the other hand, this story illustrates that there is no bigot like bureaucratic bigot.

Just crazy. I'm overweight, have had three kids (huge babies, but that's just because all the women in my family have big babies - even the skinny women lol) but all my births went off without a hitch. The best one being my last, a planned homebirth. I didn't get much flak about my weight during any of my pregnancies but I know many people who do. It's totally incorrect that weight in and of itself is a risk factor; as we're all aware here, it's more about healthy eating and movement, not the number on the scale. I hope she's able to have a positive birth experience despite this, but I don't think she'll get a lot of respect in hospitals in general. Being overweight is just another obstacle to a natural birth in most hospitals; she'll be risked out to a C-section more quickly, have more interventions, etc.. etc..

I, too, delivered a healthy baby at a birthing center as a fat woman -- piece of cake compared to stories of lots of other women. One hour in hard labor, went home a few hours later with my healthy baby. No drugs, no interventions. This hospital policy is absolutely outrageous. It is beyond ignorant. Beyond prejudiced. It is criminally negligent, as far as I'm concerned -- putting the woman (Lisa) and other women like her (along with their babies) at risk. This is an example of how prejudice against fatness is NOT harmless or something that can be ignored. This is a call to FIGHT against fat oppression -- because it affects public policy and the freedoms and human rights of fat people. The anti-fat propaganda is a weapon in the war against fat people. It is not any more acceptable than any sort of hate propaganda.

I weighed 226 when I had my son. The doctor took bets in the delivery room on how big he'd be; the doctor himself bet 9 3/4. My son weighed 6 lbs 13 oz. Does anyone know whether the big mom --> big baby thing has any statistical backing? I'm wondering if it's another size-ist myth.

I think big mom -> big baby is a myth. I seem to remember my nurse practitioner talking about it during my pregnancy. By the way, I weighed 258 when my son was born. He was an even 7 pounds. On the other hand, my friend Lisa was all of 130 when she had her son and he was 10 lbs 3 oz.

The mainstream approach to childbirth really bothers me. You realize just how researchers can ignore the data about obesity when they do the same thing with childbirth. It's not a disease, but OBs are trained to look for the pathology so they do. I was supposedly a high risk pregnancy with my last because of my age (36 at the time) and maybe my weight (about 258 before conceiving) even though I had no problems in my first pregnancy and never had a problem in my second.. I ended up switching to a homebirth midwife 2 weeks before I had my baby. She was a big baby--over 11 lbs--but I did not have gestational diabetes. I guess I just have big babies. My first was 9-5. Honestly, I think if I had been in the hospital I had planned to go to, I would have ended up with a c-section. Instead I had a 7 hour labor, 20 minutes of pushing, a 15" head so some tearing which was stiched, but an easier recovery than with my hospital birth.