do they really humiliate Bigger BMI pregnant women now?

[KillerRack]

I am a bigger BMI, and have anxiety issues.

I've been turning my own stomach recently worrying that in hospital they will make me you have to use a fat person delivery room, or a huge bed or god knows what.

just need some reassurrance it hasn't turned into a circus really?.

AIBU to worry so much??.

I had a high bmi when pregnant with DS3. I had a couple of extra growth scans and saw the registrar a few extra times and had a chat with the anaesthetist. I was offered appointments with the dietician and a GTT but declined those. The only person who was remotely patronising or rude to me was the anaesthetist and that wasn't because of my weight, it was because I told him I could give birth without an epidural.

Oh & I only put on just under a stone in pregnancy,I ate very healthily & obvs wasn't drinking.

Just wanted to add, I have a normal-low BMI and I was also asked to have the GTT.

I was BMI 34 when pregnant. I did get gestational diabetes and had the extra monitoring and scans but was told although I was a higher risk it was more down to family medical history. I was directed to a rather patronising dietician who helped me lose about a stone whilst pregnant but I was never made to feel uncomfortable about my weight by anyone. Having seen the obese mums program I think it would have made me think twice about getting pregnant at my size as I was never made aware of all the risks.

Patronised but no humiliated here. My bmi was higher than any mentioned in here thus far.

If you feel you're being unfairly treated, call them out in it.

Good luck!

I'm not gonna answer the remarks about the sentence picked out, the people doing so mare only interested in unpleasantness for the sake of it which I have no interest in.

There will always be people who look lighter than they are but because more people are overweight now the norm has shifted.

Okay, seems that it won't be hugely traumatic.

Do they insist on epidurals? I'll not be having one

gas and air like I did the last time, I made it very clear I don't want one.

And I'm not having stirrups either , my hyper-mobility syndrome makes it a big issue 'my knees will pop out if a midwife starts pressing my knee against me ,like last time. They tried it last time too, I have said to my consultant that can I go on all fours and she said yeah should be okay.

I'm now 22 weeks pregnant with DC2. At my booking appt my bmi was 35. So far I haven't had any bad comments or lecturing about my weight. I have to have a GTT at about 28 weeks, that's standard in my trust for anyone with a bmi greater than 35. I was also recruited to a clinical trial called EMPOWaR, it's looking at how to reduce the birthweight in babies of women with a high bmi.

I also recall that in my trust the cut-off for consultant care and an anaesthetic referral is a bmi of 40, although in a neighbouring trust it is 35. I'm consultant-led anyway due to previous problems.

But as yet I've had no nasty comments about my weight, nobody's even told me to be careful of it. And all my scans have been fine too, no problems with visibility.

Re: epidurals. I can't have an epidural anyway due to kyphoscoliosis and disc degeneration issues. I had DC1 with just gas and air. Was a fairly easy labour, recorded time was 1hour 15 minutes. Although I did have him at 34 weeks (spontaneous preterm labour due to pre-eclampsia), but he still weighed 6lb 3oz and nobody believed I was in labour until they checked and found I.was 8cm dilated! Admittedly, could have been.different if I'd gone full term as he'd have probably weighed 9lbs +.

"after all, if you're already pregnant there's naff all you can do about it"

umm you have 40 weeks to make changes that can benefit your child!

OP its not about humiliation, all equipment has different weight limits and CANNOT be used on anyone above that weight, the bed's weight is quite high but there's also hoists and slide sheets etc to consider, and room to use them if they become needed

the weight limits for the normal eqipment is very high but nowadays there are a lot of people who are over it, used to be hospitals only needed one barriatric bed/hoist/wheelchair now they nearly need at least one per ward! which I suppose is why some obese people like "just chubby" in comparison

I'm not gonna answer the remarks about the sentence picked out, the people doing so mare only interested in unpleasantness for the sake of it which I have no interest in

No-one has been unpleasant - just disagreed with what you said, that's all.

There's A LOT you can do in 40 weeks to improve outcomes, increase your activity and diet and not let your BMI continue to rise

"She looks just an average, bit curvy young woman"
average doesn't mean okay any more sadly, the average had gone up which is part of the problem, because people are looking around them going "but I'm average/normal? I'm not as big as most of my friends" etc

If your bmi says you need to lose weight, you do need to lose weight. Doctors don't do this for the fun of it. There is no point starting treatment for somehting like PCOS without losing weight first, since that is a treatment in itself.

Honestly, the amount of people who are convinced they, or someone else, is not what their BMI says they are...its mass delusion. We've all forgotten what normal looks like.

"We've all forgotten what normal looks like"
or we've forgotton what HEALTHY looks like, because the norm isn't necessarily it any more

I'm pretty huge and pregnant at the moment but I have to make a point of saying I'm pregnant at work because it's normal for women to have distended abdomen's these days so noone realises I'm pregnant and gives me heavy tasks even though my stomach enters a room 10 minuites before the rest of me these days!

The GTT is NOT obligatory. Like every intervention, it's optional. Personally I've refused it twice. I've also been returned to midwife care from consultant care for being awkward. I've had three vaginal deliveries of largish babies and finished every pregnancy lighter than I started it. I know that were I giving birth today in my local Trust they would be keen to put a cannula in - which having had a PPH with my last delivery I probably would accept - and also would like me to have an epidural as soon as I got to Delivery - in case of need for later c-section. I would NOT accept that.
One of the risks heavier women may run is a larger baby that gets stuck. Having an epidural and thereby reducing mobility in labour would imo only make that more likely. Yes the epidural will be handy if you go for c-section - and the birth choices the hospital policy tries to make for you, damn well makes that c section a lot more likely.

Generally a kneeling or all fours position is likely to give most room for the shoulders. What hospitals should do is encourage women to eat sensibly in pregnancy, move about and then have active and relaxed labours. The current trend is to medicalise and reduce the chance of tha. Makes me glad I'm not having anymore dcs tbh.

Thats not remotely true. Unless you're an olympic athlete, your muscle mass doesn't come into it. Yes, we have various sizes of bums and hips, some of them being large ones and some not. The large ones aren't made of muscle mass though, or bone.
Wise up, if your BMI is overweight, you are.
"BMI is bollocks" is almost always said by people who won't admit to being fat.

I'm fat, and I know it. My BMI says so. If yours does, so are you.

goldship I am not an expert in the treatment so cannot comment on that, but she does look quite overweight particularly carrying it in the most unhealthy place you can (stomach)

and yes she does look "normal" and "average" for today AS WELL

if you are obese you are advised not to gain weight but to maintain your weight during pregnancy AFAIK, even with a normal BMI you don't "need" to gain that much in pregnancy, but many people gain way more than they should so it is DEFINITELY worth keeping an eye on, that's something you can do, as well as altering your diet and activity to make improve your child's outcomes
As someone who DID gain double what I should have during my last pregnancy I can tell you it can definitely affect your labour (as well as your unborn child's health for life) and if you tend to gain weight anyway then logically you are more at risk of continuing to gain too much? so worth keeping under control

"And we all know BMI is a load of balls. It doesn't take into account muscle mass and us being women, have varying sizes of boobs and bums and hips!"

err yes it does, that is why there is such a MASSIVE range of okay weights for each height! its not one weight for each height

"And there isn't much at all you can do whilst pregnant that will drastically change your BMI"

sorry but this really is total rubbish! I increased my BMI by way too much in pregnancy! you certainly CAN keep it under control in pregnancy, I'm working very hard at doing it in pregnancy no2! Its not about loosing weight but it IS about watching your lifestyle and not letting it increase too much!

its the BEST most important time to keep an eye on your lifestyle if ever there was one!

"oh well its done now" might as well keep making it worse is a rubbish attitude to your child's health!

mrsunshine try telling that to my 6'4" karate instructor DP... he has a BMI of 30 and there's not an ounce of fat on him. Also, he's not an Olympic athlete, just a Sensai.

I, on the other hand, am fat.

and Gold, yes she does really. But did you ask your friend before plastering her picture on the internet and asking randoms if she's overweight?