Obesity Blamed for Rampant C-Sections, Maternal Deaths
If we’re not blaming mothers, we’re blaming fat people for all of societies woes.
The New York Times manages a two-fer in its piece, “Growing Obesity Increases Perils of Childbearing” (yet, interestingly, tagged “Obese Mothers a Burden on Hospital Resources”). There, we read all kinds of speculation that America’s obesity problem is the (possibly! some say!) the cause of America’s rampant c-sections problem, which is connected to the nation’s alarming rise in maternal mortality rates.
The concern is that fat women are going ahead and getting pregnant, without bothering to lose weight. Doctors are scared to council overweight and obese women because of fat issues in our society. And also (article takes a sudden left turn), hospitals are having to stock sturdier beds, bigger gowns, longer needles and step-stools (for surgery) to accommodate the big ladies.
But then to illustrate the point — the point being, obese women sometimes have tiny babies — they follow a 5-foot, 261-pound new mom (she was 195 pounds when she got pregnant), whose child was born very premature (and weighing less than two pounds). Patricia Garcia was put on hospital bed rest when she was 7 months along and couldn’t feel her baby kick.
The thing is, she was on bed rest and couldn’t feel the baby not because she was fat, because she had a stroke. And also? She was retaining water. And her kidneys were failing.
Now, granted, Garcia’s poor condition and risky pregnancy related to her health, which wasn’t good. She was a mess. But the problem with stories like this is that the stories — and some doctors themselves — condemn every woman to a higher-risk category, regardless of health and solely based on BMI.
In fact, a doctor quoted in the article thinks we’ve become acclimated to fat women and wants doctors and nurses to no longer eyeball whether their patients are obese. She wants BMI’s calculated for everyone — and nutrition counseling for those who don’t make the cut. Some hospitals in New York are even talking about creating a special ward for all the obese pregnant women. (If they’re going by BMIs, they’d better make more than one. That place is going to be crowded!)
Here’s the problem with all of this: there’s a real chicken and egg thing going on when talking about obese women and c-section rates (therefore, a problem with connecting obesity to maternal death rate increase.) Also? Garcia was very unhealthy even by her own accounts. Obesity doesn’t always indicate poor health. That BMI is pretty unforgiving. There’s obesity and there’s obesity. You can be obese yet active, healthy, and in possession of a ticker of a marathon runner. And you can be obese, diabetic and having strokes while you’re pregnant.
The one should be watched closely and treated with great amounts of care and advice. The other? Back off with the scalpel and let her give birth.
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Photo: LATimes.com
Why is it that so many times there is an issue to be discussed, either the blogger or commenter will point to that RARE case that is the exception. Sure “Obesity doesn’t always indicate poor health”…nothing is ALWAYS. However, I would hazard a bet that the majority of times a person is obese they are not healthy. BMI’s are not *that* unforgiving, people are just fatter than they should be nowadays. Why are we so often looking for ways to pass the buck, shirk responsibility and ask for special assistance? And now, you will want the American people to pay for it, too. I say, no.
I must admit, I am starting to have the same reaction as anon. Yes, I know, Michael Jordan is so muscular (and muscle weighs more than fat) that his BMI qualifies him as obese. Yes, I know a lot of people who exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet, have great cholesterol levels and low blood pressure, and are overweight. But there is a reason we as a society are becoming progressively less healthy and it is going hand in hand with our unhealthy relationships with food and our growing waistlines. Yes sizism exists and we do not do nearly enough to treat the underlying causes for obesity, but this does not mean we should ignore the real health problems associated with obesity. And, yes, that includes examining how obesity affects maternal health.
Who is asking the American people to pay for it? I must have missed that part. Last time I checked, I paid for my own $5,000 hospital bill. I don’t remember the statement being addressed to “anon.”
have you heard? a healthcare bill was passed…your fat ass costs EVERYBODY
or WILL cost everybody, and even costs us now in the form of higher premiums and resources drawn from others
Well, last time I checked nothing had changed for me. And since my household income is pretty high, more than likely I’ll be paying for your STUPID ASS. In the end, I’d rather pay for someone who is obese (which is fixable) than someone who is clearly impaired (you can’t fix stupid).
Oh jesus. Anyone here ever looked at those charts? There is a gross difference between obese and extreme obese. The amount of weight you are “allowed” to gain in pregnancy depends on your doctor, and seems to have not much at all do do with pre pregnancy weight. Skinny women can gain a ton, or not much at all…..some fat women gain loads….or not much at all. So, weight is not the issue, and should have nothing to do with surgery. Nutrition counseling should be included with pregnancy care…cheetos are not good baby growing food, and they make you fat, but the goal should be a healthy mom and baby, not a skinny mom.
the idea that insurance premiums go up because people are obese is completely unsupported. have you looked at the profit margins of health insurance companies lately? tough to prove a correlation there without factoring in profit motives of the industry. do you really think that if the majority of people were healthier your premiums would go DOWN. my instinct is that defies the laws of supply and demand. care to explain that?
if there is more demand for something the cost goes up…obese people have more health problems, which create a greater demand for services…and that’s putting it very simply…all you have to do is Google “obesity and health care costs” and you’ll see a whole host of information about this…why would you want to coddle and support a state of being that is unhealthy and that is, for the vast majority of people, preventable? what’s the resistance? the blogger here says sometimes obese women have tiny babies…and then goes on to describe how very premature this particular woman’s baby was…OF COURSE it’s going to be small…the blogger implies the woman’s health problems were because she had a stroke…well, obesity increases the risk of stroke…the idiocracy is really manifesting itself here…
besides all that, the law of supply and demand doesn’t really work with healthcare, because if you need it, you need it, and no matter what the cost, you’re going to have to get it, or die, and if you can’t pay, someone ELSE is going to have to pay…healthcare now (and under the future model) doesn’t exactly operate in a true free market
That’s right, anon. Garcia was an unhealthy woman and she was also obese. There are people who, judged by BMI, are obese, and don’t have in the least of heart/kidney/tiny baby issues. Yet these people would be pushed into higher-risk care by their doctors — which costs more $$$$ — for no need. They are healthy and fat, not unhealthy and fat.
that point of view (a valid, important one) does NOT come through in the original post…I would say that this is more of a call for a move away from “one size fits all” care where a doc really assesses a person as an individual rather than puts them on a track because of a, b, or c…that said, I think if someone is truly “obese”, that is a health risk…there is a big jump from overweight to obese when figuring BMIs and I really don’t think there are THAT many obese people who are healthy…they are anomalies…and this trend of holding up anomalies as a reason for doing or not doing something, to me, is troubling
sorry anon, you are wrong. The BMI charts do not make a jump from overweight to obese, it is linear. And, obesity does not cause any other disease. Obesity, as defined by BMI, is a simple weight to height ratio. So, that just means you weigh alot. It does not mean you have high blood pressure, heart disease, a poor diet, sedentary life style, risk of stroke, kidney disease, or cancer. And, if weight was so preventable, if we all got to choose our body type, who would be choosing to be less than socially defined perfect? It is socially acceptable for our culture to slam fat, and so jerks like you, anon, and the main stream media spout nonsense and bad science with a self-righteousness that makes me ill.
When I had a breast reduction, I went from overweight to normal. When I was pregnant, I went from normal to obese – all according to the BMI chart. My blood pressure never increased, none of my organs were in any distress. I just got heavy – still walked 2 miles a day, still worked, still ate healthy foods. Just saying . . should BMI be a tell-all for medical care?
pregnancy does not count, obviously, in terms of gauging weight…I think the doc knows this, by these counts MOST people would be “overweight” when pregnant…I understand that the BMI charts are linear, however, if you are “just” in the overweight section, it is quite a ways to the “obese” section…so, yes “jump” wasn’t the best word to choose…further, being fat is not about your body type, it’s about eating more calories than you consume and people make the choice to do that everyday because of many different reasons (food addiction, choosing the pleasure of the food over health or their appearance, etc.) it really is, for the most part about the choices people make and those who are overweight just don’t care enough to make the right choices
than you burn. I know but it does not make sense to lump people into a category. There could be an explanation for the weight gain/loss that is either healthy or not – I just don’t like it because I was overweight with huge boobs but now with big boobs, I get to be “normal.”
yes, eating more calories than you burn, sorry…and no, BMI should not be a tell all, that much is true, the docs have to do the work of knowing their patient’s lifestyle and history, if only on paper
I’m sorry, but why are we pretending that anon person is not GP? @@. Same old, same old.
I’m sorry anon but you’ve obviously never had a weight problem. It’s a well known fact that cutting back on calories and increasing exercise only works in the short term. Most people who do this over any length of time have to keep cutting back and/or increase exercise…which us not sustainable in the long term. It has a negative impact on mood and energy levels. Then there’s the gain back of all and more if you eventually make even the smallest increase in intake. And every doctor out there claims to have the diet that will finally solve my weight problem…all I can do now is exercise and eat heathily, which includes eggs and dairy and less of the processed carbs…and stay stable at the weight I am…good blood pressure, etc, etc.
go online and look at a calculator of how many calories you need to eat to lose weight and then maintain that weight. count your calories, keep track of them and don’t eat more than that. do a little exercise each day. read Jillian Michaels “master your metabolism” and see your doctor if you are still having problems. most people have NO IDEA how many calories they are consuming and think they are eating way less than they actually are. many people have screwed up metabolisms from all the chemicals in the processed foods they eat. now stop making excuses. I’ve been overweight and it is because I fell into bad habits. I suspect 99% of people have the same cause behind their weight issues, they just don’t want to face the facts.