that was easy, phew.
my bmi at end of that pg was 41. had routine bp on my due date with hospital MW. BP was raised, told to come in as entering pre-eclamptic territory. measured several hours later (so not so much of an emergency then, heh?? with diff cuff. BP down to much more usual for me 95/70.
i asked if the cuff or machine made any difference, told not at all possible, it would have been that i was rested now. but very much noted the different size of the cuff.
3 day induction, finally got ds1 out with sheer willed effort to stop them rattling the cutlery at the end of the bed at me. very very fncked off with it all, as ds1 got disgustngly close to full blood transfusion for jaundice after that ridiculously long birth (and i was starved throughout).
Never saw a consultant all that PG, just 1 registrar, once who took weight as no issue.
Few months after the birth, after review of notes etc, complaint upheld, got them to review their protocols and buy more fat lady cuffs for each place a MW operated.
with ds2, different hospital booking, had more of your type of experience, being told you're fat etc. was too angry with NHS still, and too proud of my abilty to cope with their crap by that stage to care much about anyone's opinion. i do and did appreciate the truth of the population statistics on childbirth, but was happy to live with increased risk. not so happy with their attitudes. or the fight i had on my hands to get into the MW led birth unit. they were very 'yes, but....'. And i knew the best shot at least trauma in childboirth for me was a waterbirth. but boy they were strict about it.
gave up in the end and had a home water birth with indy MW. who knew me, knew the cuff stuff already. knew her onions +++, and literally physically rehearsed me for how we (WE! note that WE!) would deal with a more than likely shoulder dystocia (ds2 showing large on plapitation and ultrasound). we practised the different positions, me hopping in and out of the pool we'd hired. she drew her bottom lines like 'if i say we need hospital, i mean it, we're going in, i'll do it under these circumstances otherwise you can have your money back' etc.
and that's the main difference isn't it? a really practical working relationship where she knew my general health, how i was doing psychollogically. and a MW who wasn't scared by the extremes of the norm and had plenty of experience.
she resolved ds2's shoulder dystocia, because my god he was huge, and very long. we were admitted after the birth to check with paed there was no shoulder damage to baby and we stayed for treatment of mild juandice. because of his size we had nearly every maternity professional in the place trundle by for a look-see at us. they'd never heard of such a large baby delivered vaginally. hospitals just won't even try. there are some great people in them, but for years now i think if you don't fall near the average, every basic intervention in the book will be thrown at you. it's vicious circle. the MWs are less skilled on the whol e than they used to be (many haven't even delivered a simple breach baby i hear nowadays). so more interventions are used, meaning less MW skills.
sorry drifted off into somewhat simplistic ranting now. you have to let some of these comments roll off your back. work on your general health, staying strong and practising how to cope psychologically with birth. as neccessary if you have medical interventions as if you go down the more naturalistic route.
and finally, if they start makjing noises about CS because of your size, start throwing it back in their faces - at MY SIZE, mock shock horror ;)
good luck, don't let the normalistic basterds get you down