Like a truck in maternity care, it harms women and their larger children

According to research with United StatesWomen experience a stigma of weight in maternity care during almost every visit. We expect this experience to be similar in Australia, where Over 50% of women reproductive age live in larger bodies.

The weight mark may occur as stereotypical, negative attitudes and discrimination actions towards larger people.

Occurs in other areas of healthcare and in the whole society. But Our research It focuses on weight stigma in maternity care, which can cause significant damage to women and their children.

What does the weight mark look like in maternity care?

Sometimes a truck is clear or intentionally. Already the mark of weight includes healthcare professionals who have a negative approach to care Larger pregnant women. This can present, for example, when healthcare workers Make negative comments weighing or accuse women of dishonesty When they discuss diet consumption.

Sometimes the truck is hidden or unintentional. The closed stigma includes maternity care suppliers, avoiding physical touch or eye contact during Consultations with women with a larger capacity.

Rules, guidelines and environment also contribute to the stigma of body weight. Often women in larger bodies Report a stigmatized sense and you cannot access the type of maternity care Will. The lack of availability of properly matched hospital clothing or delivery beds are other noteworthy examples.

IN review Published last year, we looked at the weight stigma from prejudice to after birth. Our results have shown that women with a larger body are sometimes automatically treated as a high risk and subjected to additional monitoring of their pregnancy, even if they do not have other risk factors requiring monitoring.

This approach is problematic because it focuses on body size instead of healthimposing a woman’s responsibility and disregarding other elaborate health determinants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfgvkqyn6o8

How does this make women feel?

Qualitative evidence shows Women who experience a stigma of weight During their maternity care, they are judged, devalued, embarrassed and less worthy. May feel guilty about getting pregnant and experience doubts.

As one research participant explained:

One doctor told me that I was terrible to get pregnant in my weight, that I set up a child to stun […] I was in tears and he told me that I was too sensitive.

AND 2023 Australian Paper Written by women who have experienced a stigma of body weight in the care of pregnancy, he told about their care as a hyper focused on weight and dehumanization, robbing them with the joy of pregnancy.

According to one woman, “there was no compassion or conversation, just guilty.”

In addition to the fact that women felt humiliation and disrespect, the weight mark in maternity care can affect mental health. For example, a weight mark is associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms and stress, disordered nutritional behavior and emotional food.

One of the key reasons why a weight mark is so harmful to the health of pregnant women is that it is closely related Body fears.

The society unfairly maintains women with a larger capacity Unrealistic ideals Around the shape and size of the body, their usefulness for being a mother and control they have over weight gain.

Own mark It occurs when women apply a stigmatizing narrative of society-from people in the community, media, peers, family members and healthcare-themselves.

Influence on mother and child

It is associated with several negative pregnancy and delivery results Weight mark in maternity care. They include Maternity diabetesIN Imperial birth AND Lower breastfeeding.

Although we know that these things can also be connected Higher body weightThe emerging evidence indicates that the weight mark may have stronger link with some results than a body mass indicator.

There are many possible reasons for these links. For example, a weight mark can cause delayed access to healthcare and commitment services, and, as shown above, worse mental health and reduced trust. This may mean that a woman is less likely that, for example, she initiates and seeks assist in breastfeeding.

Experiencing a stigma of weight also leads to Reaction to stress in the bodywhat maybe affect the health of a woman during pregnancy.

In turn, the unfavorable effects of stigma of body weight can also affect the child’s health. For example, pregnancy diabetes has a range potential negative results In this, a higher probability of premature delivery, difficulties during delivery and an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

But weight and wine should not fall on women. Pregnant and postpartum women should not take experience stigma body weight in healthcare.

What can we do about it?

Although it is necessary to solve the weight stigma as a social problem, health services may play a key role in reversing the narrative with guilt and shame, and to make maternity care more fair for women with a larger capacity.

The solution to the stigma in maternity care can start with teaching midwives and obstetricians on the subject of weight – what is, where it happens and how it can be minimized in practice.

We have worked with women who have experienced a stigma of body weight in the field of maternity and midwives to design resources together satisfy this need. Both women and midwives wanted resources that can be easily integrated in practice, act as consistent reminders to make them cordial to the size, and meet the gaps of knowledge of midwives.

The resources included a miniature podcast on the subject of weight in maternity care and images of fit pregnant women with a larger body to show the most likely result is fit pregnancy. Midwives have positively assessed the resources and are ready to implement in practice.

There is a long way to end a stigma of body weight in maternity care, but working on this goal will benefit countless mothers and their children.