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??

I'd also really like to see the evidence that human beings' bodies lay down fat stores for winter, because this is the first I've heard of it.

Quietlyafraid, is that the only choice - that you either need to be told how much you're allowed to eat or it has to be the whole packet. How about simply eating as much as you want and need?

What a soulless joyless way to approach food
How bloody ridiculous. I come from good Italian stock - we fucking adore our food. I eat three very good meals a day. I just don't gorge myself senseless. I

most people stop eating when they are full
No they don't. If they did we wouldn't have such a collosal obesity problem.

The last study I've heard of. The rest of your post I don't think has any scientific basis whatsoever Custard.

You say you don't think about weight but the very first thing you say about eating more calories is that you'd put on weight. It's obviously an important issue to you. You also said that not eating Tiramusu was about staying at the right weight.

Greed does come into it thunderbolt. I certainly could eat more chocolate than I should if I didn't think about it. I definitely get a 'hit' off the sugar. I don't NEED chocolate at all. I WANT chocolate. I NEED vitamins from other foods, and if I fill up on chocolate, I don't want to eat other foods which are better for me.

I had a really bad habit with sugary fizzy drinks. I would drink at least a full bottle a day as I didn't like other drinks. It wasn't until I had problems with my teeth that I realised just how much of an issue it was. I wasn't eating properly and was getting all my energy from the sugar. I would crash and be very bad tempered and suffered from awful headaches. And apparently fizzy drinks are bad for your calcium absorption too. Not so good for someone who has osteoporosis in the family.

But kicking the fizzy drinks was TOUGH and took a long time. I WAS addicted. Quite scary.

Kerry if you want to do it and you like Jaffa cakes, it will be fun.

I was just going to say I am so happy I don't know the calorific value of anything. Except that is jaffa cakes that is. Which are apparently 45 calories a cake. I found that out today.

Try eating dark chocolate quietly afraid. You might find your chocolate craving is about the nutrients in chocolate. You get the best ones in dark chocolate.

What the hell is 'fun' about eating an entire packet of jaffa cakes in one sitting?

Fun?

It shouldn't be ignored. Support to manage obesity downwards in pregnancy should be given.
That is what I think but they have to actually admit they are obese and not make excuses.
You can eat anything-but in moderation, it certainly isn't moderation to eat more than 2 biscuits at a time.

I can't see any fun, it was cause misery-I don't think my stomach would take it. I love food, I cook a lot and I think eating should be sociable but you can do all that without over eating or treating food as an enemy.

I am fat (well to be accurate, am just in the obese category) due to craving the sensual sensation that eating particular foods engenders, coupled with a disregard/skewed perception for portion control and a lack of willpower. Obviously this didn't happen overnight. If I had set and adhered to sensible limits, instead of seeing common sense/moderation as some kind of fucking denial/punishment, where food is concerned, I wouldn't be in this situation now.

I know I owe it to myself-(and to set a good example to my baby daughter as she grows) to regain control of my appetite, eating patterns and body, once and for all. I have lost and gained numerous times over the years. I try to hide my "fatness" by clever dressing-2 pairs of Spanx under even day to day clothes, never showing upper arms and dressing really well. It worked well for a while, but I have reached that cut off point. I admit I am vain, but I think the crux of it is that love food and eating more than I care about my long term health , the judgment of others' and how I look in clothes.

I think I am beyond greedy. I am addicted to the pleasure derived-that sensation. I think about food disproportionately-an example is if I am going out to a fave restaurant, I will spend a lot of time during the day, thinking about the food, maybe going online to peruse the menu....same if I am going to friends/relatives-of course I enjoy the "social" side, but my internal focus will be on what they will feed me-my enjoyment being heightened by good and plentiful food and feeling miffed/cheated if this lacks in some way.

I wish I had some of the self discipline and control that slim posters have described upthread. That is not weakness, it's strength. To be able to enjoy food, occasionally over indulge but know in essence when enough is enough. To not live to eat.

No Kerry I love 'em.

But fun? It's not an adjective I'd use to describe eating an entire packet of biscuits, but maybe I just don't know how to live.

Do you ever diet deliciousdevilwoman?

I'd go online to peruse the menu if I was going to a restaurant. In fact I sometimes go online to look at menus of restaurants I'll never eat at, heh. It's the joy of food.

There is a huge difference between eating what you want, and eating what you need thunder.

I love crisps, chocolate, desserts (any food that is full of fat and sugar actually) because they taste nice. If I didnt excercise any self control I would probably have these things every day and would become very overweight. So I dont. Does this mean I have issues with food because I dont gorge myself on sweets and crisps every day? WTF?!

Why dont you care about putting on weight? Its not healthy to put on too much weight. As other people have said, our circumstances have changed hugely, but our bodies and biology havent. That is why we have such an obesity problem.

Just going back to the OP, these statements in particular ...
I will have raised blood pressure.
I will be prone to urinary tract infections.
I will have restricted mobilisation.

... are ridiculous lies. As exemplified by OP and thousands of other obese mothers, the BMI does not guarantee the problems. The fact that we have such a lazy-minded health service may be no surprise, but it's still despicable.

Thunderbolts, I'm very loving your posts here but have to warn you it's a lost cause. Diet control is the new religion: the idea that healthy people just know what to eat, and how much, is heresy. Daft, but there you go!

Come to think of it, it's a kind of infantilsation. Don't get pregnant if you're fat, it WILL go wrong. Don't trust your own appetite, you know you can't trust yourself! You need to be controlled ...

Does this mean I have issues with food because I dont gorge myself on sweets and crisps every day?

No. But if you can't eat a few crisps or chocolates without gorging, then you have got issues.

12 Jaffa cakes in a packet. I know because there are 6 of us and we have 2 each. For pudding

God, we're soooo screwed up...

Quite a few people have managed to fix their disordered relationship with food (bingeing or iron controlled self denial) on this diet - it's not a calorie controlled weight loss diet, it's about developing new habits towards food, and it's very sensible:

www.nosdiet.com/

SoupyLoupy, I'm not recommending it to anyone else if they wouldn't want to. I enjoyed it so you don't have to. :)

I've just got a feeling that everybody who has been horrified by the idea of a whole packet of jaffa cakes have had dieting and calorie looming large in their life at some point. There seems to be a big undercurrent of not enjoying food.

Thunderbolts have read this entire thread and I just don't know what to make of your views on food.

You seem to dislike the idea that some people like to eat healthily because they care what they look like and know that if they eat too much of the wrong types, they won't look they way they want too. You think this is a bad attitude to have towards eating and for the life of me I can't think why.

Some people enjoying looker thinner than they enjoy eating food, that's their choice.

I know what I can and can't eat without getting a belly roll which on me, IMO, doesn't look good.

It's also wasted fat, surplus to requirements, unecessary for optimal biological function and it looks bad!

I don't notice other people size on a day to day basis and if they're happy I don't care. But to suggest that somebody doesn't enjoy food (your point earlier in this post; soemthing like souless etc..) is no different than calling someone a glutton because you think they eat too much