it's supposed to be an news article, not an editorial

[cassidyrose]

There is a troubling article about increased maternal deaths related to pregnancy here. The writer plays up the supposed dangers of the obesity in pregnancy in the first paragraph, though if you actually read down you see that the evidence points to the insane c-section rate as the primary culprit (duh!). Serious editorializing going on always

Comments

[cerulean_me]

Dr. Elliott Main was my perinatalogist with my oldest. He's a basically nice doc, but rabidly anti-fat. He tried to convince me that my diabetes was CAUSED by my weight... ignoring the fact that I was under-average weight when I developed it. (Side note- I was homeless, and only eating 6-10 meals a week for two years as a teen ager. The "meals" were mostly stolen hostess products, stolen candy bars, and salvation army meals loaded with bad carbs. This led to me being thin and diabetic.)

Despite bring Dr. Main several studies showing that weight is often a marker for diabetes, not the cause, he wouldn't back down. Finally I had to tell him that we would not be discussing my weight, as it's not like I could diet and lose weight while pregnant.

[kineticphoenix]

And here we have yet another example of sizeist bullying thinly veiled as a health news story. *sigh*

[deepspring]

Most expectant mothers I've known, even the originally thin ones, were considered obese by their due date according to the scales. Seeing as that seems natural for the last few thousand years, I doubt obesity is the new pregnancy bandit.

However, being nearly retired and/or jacked up on fertility treatments ARE rather recent ones. I would think tinkering with your body's natural process would be a humdinger on your system during labor. Everything is older, heart, lungs, reproductive system. And to your old taxed system you may be undergoing surgery or multiple births and that's just a recipe for disaster. I'm surprised anyone makes it through all that. I agree, those should be the first choice in the lineup.