How Bizarre!

Pregnant woman told to lose weight...she's too fat!

Published on July 1, 2005 By foreverserenity In Blogging

I just read a news article that a nurse told a pregnant woman to lose weight because she’s too fat to have the baby at their hospital. And get this….she’s in the last weeks of pregnancy with 10 more weeks to go!

Apparently since her BMI (Body Max Index) is 41. The normal BMI is 20-25. And under 40 for women who are pregnant, according to the news article.

I guess if that was the case in the US a lot of women would be in big trouble then! I don’t understand why they didn’t just transfer her case to one of the other hospitals that is better equip to handle her instead of telling her she’s not good enough to have her baby there because she’s too fat! That’s pretty demoralizing to her I can bet.

And this is also pretty dangerous for the baby if she follows what the nurse does advise because the last trimester is pretty important in an infant’s development. We’re talking the baby’s neurological development now! Plus many women carry a lot of water with their pregnancies. I know I had a lot of water which made me very large with each of my pregnancies and each of my babies weighed from 6lbs 10oz to 7lbs. Some people just retain more water.

It’s apparently that hospital’s policy but they are wrong in how they conducted themselves with this expectant mom because she participated in a survey and completed paperwork prior to going in to meet with them.

I guess in some ways this is bad training in customer service relations because if the nurse had better bedside manners she would have handled it a different way and no one outside of their click would know about it!

Link

Comments

foreverserenity

on Jul 01, 2005

bump

foreverserenity

on Jul 01, 2005

Whip, you've got your bizarres crossed - I think you meant to respond to Psyche's "you never know about people" article. And this is bizarre because I just mentioned this article to him too - how bizarre! Great now I'm going to be singing that tune all evening....how bizarre!

Death_By_Beebles

on Jul 01, 2005

That is rather bizarre. I've never heard of a hospital denying a mother for being too fat during pregnancy. I've seen obese people be denied procedures because they were to heavy, but never this before.

foreverserenity

on Jul 01, 2005

I know. This is definately a first!

Texas Wahine

on Jul 01, 2005

It's generally a good idea to get down to a healthy weight before pregnancy. Sometimes this doesn't happen, and the mother has to make the best of the situation. It's easy to gain a lot of weight during pregnancy (I gained about 60 lbs with my first one), but it isn't good for the baby, and neither is being obese during pregnancy.

An obese pregnant woman is typically directed to gain a much smaller amount of weight during her pregnancy because a good portion of pregnancy weight gain is maternal fat stores to prepare for nursing and stamina after the birth, and the obese woman already has the maternal fat stores (and then some) that are required.

During the last trimester of pregnancy a woman needs approximately 300 extra calories a day (easily met with a single nutritious snack) on top of her normal caloric requirements.

This woman could safely lose weight without harming her baby by focusing on nutritious food choices and eating her caloric needs for her weight (13 calories per pound) plus 300 extra calories and adding exercise like water aerobics or walking.

While calories are a factor, the baby's needs are more focused on nutrients than just "food."

Obese women tend to have larger babies (and not the good 8 lb kind of larger) and often the baby is not getting the nutrients needed because of poor food choices. The pregnant woman's stamina for delivery and healing after the birth is also impeded. Further, her weight could cause complications and might even necessitate a Cesarean delivery. There are more possible complications as well, but I'm too lazy to look them up right now.

Having said that, just saying "we can't take you, you're too fat" does nothing for the health and well-being of the baby or the mom. The doctor should have referred her to a nutritionist and recommended hospitals that could better meet her needs. The way they handled the situation was callous and hurtful, but an ob/gyn should not turn a blind eye to a weight problem that could adversely affect the baby and mother anymore than he should endorse a pregnant mother smoking.

As a side note, if the bulk of her extra weight is in fact water retention, then she needs high risk care immediately, because she may have life-threatening pre-eclampsia or another dangerous condition.

foreverserenity

on Jul 05, 2005

Having said that, just saying "we can't take you, you're too fat" does nothing for the health and well-being of the baby or the mom. The doctor should have referred her to a nutritionist and recommended hospitals that could better meet her needs. The way they handled the situation was callous and hurtful, but an ob/gyn should not turn a blind eye to a weight problem that could adversely affect the baby and mother anymore than he should endorse a pregnant mother smoking.As a side note, if the bulk of her extra weight is in fact water retention, then she needs high risk care immediately, because she may have life-threatening pre-eclampsia or another dangerous condition.

Yes, she should have been referred to where she can get the help she needs. The article didn't say that she was, given the risk factors involved. I've been lucky because like I said, I carried large during each of my three pregnancies. But I was never overweight before pregnancy until the last one. Even then I was just 20lbs over my usual weight. I lost about half of it during the first three months what with my lack of apetite and morning sickness that lasted for the first 4 and half months. But I was also going to my ob/gyn on a regular basis and closely monitored since I was 36 at the time which to them was a risk factor (they said) because women over 35 are at risk when they are pregnant. Thank heavens for a healthy pregnancy which I enjoyed to the max, a healthy delivery (normal, just like the other two) and a healthy child!

Trudygolightly

on Jul 05, 2005

foreverserenity: Ya know, as rude as they were to her, it's for the best she was told right up front that they
couldn't take care of her. At least they recognized their own limitations, let her go where she and unborn baby
can be properly taken care of. Amen.
With my first baby, I was obese and considered a high-risk pregnancy, so I followed the doctors advice,
I gained only 20#'s and she weighed 9#8oz and
was a healthy 21 1/2 inches long!
Now she's 6'2" and a slim chick

My second pregnancy found me just mildly overweight and still I was told to only
gain 19 #'s or so and so I did. He weighed in at 8#15oz and was19 and 1/2 inches long, and now he's 6' tall.
Being obese as I was with that 1st pregnancy created all kinds of problems, I had toxemia, and that casued
a weight gain overnight of 5 pounds and was very dangerous to the baby.
I tried so hard to not miscarry her, I quit smoking, drinking, and followed all the rules laid
down by the doctor. It paid off too

foreverserenity

on Jul 12, 2005

At least they recognized their own limitations, let her go where she and unborn babycan be properly taken care of. Amen.

Yes it's good that they know there own limitations but they didn't tell her that or suggested where she should go and tell her why. I believe it's just how they talked to her and didn't do the referral that caused the problem.

With my first baby, I was obese and considered a high-risk pregnancy, so I followed the doctors advice,I gained only 20#'s and she weighed 9#8oz andwas a healthy 21 1/2 inches long! Now she's 6'2" and a slim chick My second pregnancy found me just mildly overweight and still I was told to onlygain 19 #'s or so and so I did. He weighed in at 8#15oz and was19 and 1/2 inches long, and now he's 6' tall.Being obese as I was with that 1st pregnancy created all kinds of problems, I had toxemia, and that casueda weight gain overnight of 5 pounds and was very dangerous to the baby.I tried so hard to not miscarry her, I quit smoking, drinking, and followed all the rules laiddown by the doctor. It paid off too

Wow, your children are pretty statuesque now! That's great your pregnancies turned out OK despite the problems.

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