to be completely shocked and disgusted at the leaflet I've just been given by my mw???

[mummylovesnancy]

This leaflet, titled 'Raised BMI in Pregnancy' was passed on to me by my midwife at my booking in appointment yesterday. Along with the words 'You can't have a home birth, you probably won't deliver naturally and you'll be given consultant led care.'
I'm 28, I have 2 PERFECTLY healthy children who both have perfect height to weight ratios, eat well, are active and are generally normal children. I weigh 13st and I'm 5'2 which puts me in the 'obese' catagory according to the good ol' BMI index of wonder. I have been roughly this weight and exactly this height for all of my adult life. I am overweight, I accept that, but what I don't accept is being told to read this sodding leaflet which tells me, among various other little pearlers, that:
*I will have raised blood pressure. (Not 'I may', 'I WILL')
*I will be prone to urinary tract infections. (never had one in my life!)
*'Bigger Ladies' (exact wordage) get more blood clots. (Dumb Fuck)
*Examinations will be difficult. (Why? Because you have to part all my layers of fat to get to my vag?! How fucking degrading)
*I will have restricted mobilisation. (Will I? Because I don't now, will it automatically come with being fat and preggers?)
*Putting in a drip will be difficult. (yeah because my hands are so freaking chubby.)
*Breastfeeding will be challenging (I've managed it with two babies, now because you've changed your guidelines I think I might struggle.)
And my favourite one yet:
*The risk of stillbirth or your baby dying in the first 28 days is increased in 'larger ladies' (Thanks for that one, nhs, I just had a misscarriage 8 weeks ago. Was it because I'm fat?)

It also mentions on about 7 occasions that I may want an epidural. Is that to keep me quiet?! It also offers to refer me to a dietician and a counsellor.

I have been overweight (or a larger or bigger lady, as the nhs prefers) and given birth naturally twice with absolutely no complications and one of them was a home birth. I can't believe I have to read all this shit. The idiot who wrote this doesn't even know how to place an apostrophe or comma ffs!

Does anyone agree with me that this is a disgusting, degrading, scare mongering piece of shit or am I being an unreasonable pregnant wreck??

Thats awful YANBU. The way it was worded was dreadful. I was slightly overweight in my pregnancies but my friend was told harshly she was obese by a much larger than her midwife. Surely there is a better way of putting it.

Surely to god you know if you're fat?

I don't think it's recommended to actually lose weight while pregnant though Jeremy, just not to put much on.

What better way of putting it is there? Obese is the medical term. What other words are there that mean the same thing?

but that man is 24 stone there is a massive difference between that and a bit over weight or there is in my eyes but perhaps i am more forgiving and dont think that if you are two stone over weight you are likely to die of heart failure.

I don't think it's recommended to actually lose weight while pregnant though Jeremy, just not to put much on.

And to educate about eating more healthy diet. Which is entirely appropriate during pregnancy.

so being over weight should be considered on a par with smoking and excessive alcohol consumption?

Yes absolutely

Both can cause unecessary risk/harm to baby and Mother and both can cost the NHS a fortune.

The thing is, overweight Mums tend to get a lot of sympathy/excuses made for them by others because so many others are overweight themselves.

In much the same way smokers huddle round smoking shelters often kidding themselves and others that they are doing themselves (or their kids) no harm.

losing weight while pregnant?? you are suppose to gain weight while pregnant.

unlikely

fucking ridiculous. Absolutely pointless to give any leaflets/advice like that once an overweight woman is already pregnant..bit fucking late to go on about it now!!

Course you can lose weight while you're pregnant! It may not be recommended but I would imagine thats because of the numpties you were talking about earlier who have no idea about healthy eating.

I was overweight when I got pregnant, I stopped eating crap, ate far more nutritious and beneficial foods and therefore was consuming less calories than my body used (while vastly increasing the vitamins, minerals etc due to better choices) and as a result weighed over a stone less at the end of my pregnancy than I did at the start.

How could that possibly be a bad thing?

"losing weight while pregnant?? you are suppose to gain weight while pregnant."

Yes, weight from the baby and all that goes with it. Nothing to stop you losing excess fat at the same time

Its true. You can get as sensitive as you like but it is undeniably true that obese people are far more likely to have interventions.

I think you're in denial.

There seems to be a rather large percentage of people on this thread lumping the terms 'overweight' and 'obese' together as if one is just as dangerous as the other.

Most evidence suggests, that slighty overweight is the healthiest weight to be. Therefore, the OP could easily fall into that catogory if she was very muscly.

Custardcake - yes.

And when an overweight person makes those changes they will generally, naturally, lose weight. Whether that is the intention or not.

annoyingdevil can you show me the evidence that being slightly overweight is the healthiest way to be , please?

Isn't that an oxymoron, BTW? OVERweight means weighing more than you should so weighing what you should is the optimum, no?

The OP is about three and a half stone overweight. I think that the description 'slightly overweight' is not really fitting if we are talking about BMI.

I suppose if a healthy diet and exercise leads to weight loss in pregnancy it's ok, but it was a proper study I read said that overweight and obese (bmi 30-40) pg women shouldn't try to lose weight.

I weigh less 3weeks post partum than I did at my booking in appointment btw, but I didn't consciously try to change my diet apart from going vegan the last six weeks. I just try to eat what I want when I'm hungry.

Most evidence suggests, that slighty overweight is the healthiest weight to be. Therefore, the OP could easily fall into that catogory if she was very muscly.

I doubt it, she's already said she's had her two other kids as an obese woman.

i think that there should be a defination between overweight, obese and morbidly obese then because i dont think it would be particularly common for an over weight or obese woman to need intervention assuming you mean ventuse etc but can see were a morbidly obese person could need extra medical intervention.

definition