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??

Gwendoline, but the equivalent wouldn't be to give an offensive leaflet to lung cancer sufferers - rather, it would be the kind of leaflets which already are given to smokers, and the general efforts to tell us the risks and the dangers and the general foolishness of smokers.

That leaflet is badly phrased, and 'larger ladies' makes me want to scream, but it is NOT unreasonable to point out that being overweight isn't healthy.

In fact, to use the smoking analogy again, I look forward to the day we get adverts with winsome kiddies saying 'mummy I really want you to go on a diet because I just don't want to lose you, cos I don't know what I'd do wivvout you'.

Fat people get a gentle nudge from the Change4life cartoony people, smokers get guilt-tripped and frightened all the time!

No, katandkit, throughout the whole leaflet there is not one mention of what I could possibly do to bring down my risks or help myself. No offer of help or advice (apart from the words 'you will be offered a referal to a dietician or counsellor'). No information of where I could go or who I could ask. It's just a badly writted pile of crap.
Now I just hope I don't need a c section, I'm so fat, gravy might pour out!

AtYourCervix Fri 04-Nov-11 08:55:02
"The recipient is supposed to then go and think about her diet, take up the offer of a referral to a dietitian, eat healthier, exercise more and not pile on an extra 4 stone just because she's pregnant.

Would you rather nobody mentioned it at all? or the risks?"

Agree with this in response to 'well what is she supposed to do with this information?'

Also, it is perfectly possible to lose weight in pregnancy.

The wording is crap though, sounds really unprofessional, the phrasing is just off.

mummylovesnancy - I wonder if the leaflet wasnt an NHS one as such, in that its not something that has been distributed to various clinics/hospitals but something that has been done by the work experience kid at that particular hospital.
Did it look like a professianally printed leaflet?

Whata crock of shite. At 13 stone you are definitely not obese. Talk about scaremongering

YANBU because it is so badly written.

Sadly, much of it is true and should say may rather than will.

But YABU to be so extremeley angry about it, it's just a leaflet.

p.s it is acceptable to not gain any weight in pregnancy at all if you are very overweight or obese.

The leaflet isn't factually accurate though. I had no blood pressure issues during my pregnancy.
And wtf about not having a natural delivery??

Yes, obese women are at a higher risk for some complications, but presenting these facts incorrectly doesn't help anyone.

It doesn't give you any advice.... apart from saying they'll refer you to a dietician? . Sounds like quite a useful service, really!

Complain to head honcho at the Trust. You can go thru PALS.

Local paper might be interested (but will probably want pic of you looking sad, one hand on bump and holding leaflet in the other)

Get it pulled and replaced with something that is actually useful and won't raise the blood pressure of 'larger ladies',

The thing is, there are selfish people who actually plan pregnancies when they are overweight...instead of using it as an incentive to lose weight before getting pregnant, thus putting their baby and themselves at lesser risk.

In the same way a lot of selfish smokers plan the same thing instead of giving up first and getting themselves fitter.

But I can see how those who have accidentally fallen pregnant while obese or addicted to nicotine/other harmful things would feel like shit after reading that.

Bear in mind that all NHS leaflets are written for something like an age 7 reading level. This is so they can ensure everyone understands he salient points. They can't go producing leaflets deending on your level of eduaction so all are written to be understood by pretty much the lowest common denominator. So please don't go thinking the patronising tone is reserved for those who are obese.

That aside apart from the "you will have raised blood pressure" line, everything in the leaflet is true.

So your objection seems to be related to being called a "larger lady". In which case what would you prefer? Because it was only weeks ago that there was an outcry about a HCP who referred to a patient as fat.

katisha what the recipient of such a leaflet can do is start eating healthily and exercising moderately and ensuring they don't treat pregnancy as a free fo all and put on another 4 stone. Plenty of women have dieted healthily and successfully during pregnancy. Recent research has shown that woman tend to be more motivated towards a healthy lifestyle in pregnancy and so it would be a good time to start.

Whata crock of shite. At 13 stone you are definitely not obese. Talk about scaremongering

She's 5ft 2 of course she's obese!

Op it sounds awful! I just got the 'evils of epidurals' leaflet rather than 'who fucked you fatty?' (lol) leaflet.

Love the helpful attitude that fat people need to be told that they can't stuff their faces when pregnant because being fat = stupid, lazy, greedy etc.

I would complain as it's factually incorrect. And saying statistically you're more likely to get x, y, z if you're obese is fine if it actually states the risk I.e obese women are 5%/50% more likely to have raised blood pressure.

Totally agree with the poster who said you're patronised within an inch of your life when your pregnant. It's ridiculous!

The leaflet isn't accurate though. It's not true to say that women with higher bmi will have high blood pressure. They have a higher risk of high blood pressure but that is not the same as will have.

Losing weight quickly before getting pregnant is likely to lead to gaining a large amount of weight during the pregnancy which is much more unhealthy than simply being overweight in the first place.
And is likely to lead to mineral and vitamin deficiencies which may lead to complications and abnormalities.
Not selfish worra.

Apologies, just scanned thread. Have also had that leaflet. I also have had two previous children and no problems with this pg. I've fought and fought against all the stuff in this leaflet and all the thoughtless comments. My BMI is just at the cut off point. I can't go to mw led unit, did get 'allowed' a home birth though! I had one registrar tell me I should have done something about it. My weight. She said I should have joined a 'club'! I nearly throttled her. As it happens I've lost loads of weight and still in my pre pg clothes (39+3). However what they didn't tell me was that the BMI thing relates to the weight you are at booking in. So it wouldn't have actually made any difference. I can honestly say I have been so stressed by this whole carry on so in my opinion YANBU! However i guess there are others who may be at 'risk' of the contraindications mentioned, think that this is possible regardless of weight though. My friend is tiny, her 1st pg resulted in a coma as a result of pre-eclampsia, 2nd in shoulder dystocia and 3rd she had an elcs! The problem is that there has to be a cut off. The consultant at my hospital said 'oh voodoo clearly the guidelines aren't suitable and will have to be changed' absolutely no use to me though!

Apologies for typos - BF nt conducive to tping

TheQeenofDeDead was going to ask the same thing as you in your last post but given that I'm a) an HCP and b) defended the OP in the thread to which you refer, I didn't want to bring it up

Timewasting no-one mentioned losing weight quickly

So now only the physically perfect should reproduce?

"there are selfish people who actually plan pregnancies when they are overweight"

pigletmania the OP is clinically obese.

OP, the leaflet sounds very unhelpful and poorly worded. It would have been better to have one giving tips on how to keep weight down in pregnancy (obviously within reason given you are growing a baby). But YAB(slightly)U to be shocked and disgusted. They can't ignore it or sweep it under the carpet. Just because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it isn't a real risk given your weight.

YABU and possibly a bit over sensitive because you know it's true.

Love the helpful attitude that fat people need to be told that they can't stuff their faces when pregnant because being fat = stupid, lazy, greedy etc.

At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, they didn't get fat by eating rice cakes and going to the gym, though! Being very overweight suggests that someone probably does need a bit of advice on diet and exercise!