Is becoming pregnant while obese ethical?

[Cloberella]

What are your thoughts on women who choose to become pregnant whilst being very obese, given the possible negative consequences for both mother and child?

 

[bathbabe]

depends what you would call very obese. I had a BMI higher than it should of been. But i had no complications other than prem labour but that wasnt because of my weight. I never had high blood pressure, GD or anything else your ment to have when fat. Ok if your too fat to look after your baby or have been told its a very high chance of death to the mother or baby then i dont think its fair. Im assuming your as skinny as a rake? Otherwise you wouldnt ask about something that many women worry about, there is a wide variety of people on here and while many wont be offended by this think of the people who are overweight and struggle with it, reading that isnt going to make them feel any better is it? I think ethical was the wrong word. I dont mean to sound bitchy but i know a few people that would be upset by this i know you were just asking

 

[lesleyann]

i think before you activly TTC you should be of a healthy BMI for your height, Its not fair on the mothers body if already at strain to put a pregnancy onto that, and also normally if your VERY VERY obese you proberly dont have a good health diet of food which a child needs to be brought up with, to be healthy themselfs. However if there is a medical reason stopping them losing weight that its not putting mother or child at risk then ok go for it.

p.s i have tryied so hard to word this in away to not offened people but sorry if i have

 

[Laura2919]

Who are we to judge? If they have underlying health issues and want a child and are willing to risk their lives for that child then what can we say or do to change that? Nothing. I am not small. I am 5ft 2in and I am a size 14. I was a 12 when I fell pregnant with my girls and I gained weight. My mum was a size 8 when she had my sister and after my brother gained weight. She was bigger when she had me.
I dont have any health issues but I had my girls at 29 weeks. I dont think that it affects anybody but that person.

 

[BlackBerry25]

I am fat and pregnant.

 

[Chocciebutton]

I have a medical condition that causes me to be overweight and in theory infertile.......but I fell pregnant!!! I am active as I dont drive, I generally eat healthily and I dont drink or smoke so I didnt have to battle with stopping those. I feel fine at the moment, people have problems with pregnancies of all sizes and bigger mums are more cuddly lol. Someone could be slim but have other issues....the main thing is that the baby is loved at the end of the day

 

[annawrigley]

I am fat and pregnant.

The question was about obese people

 

[BlackBerry25]

Ok well I am obese and pregnant. I haven't had a problem at all, so no I dont find it ethically wrong.

 

[Cloberella]

depends what you would call very obese. I had a BMI higher than it should of been. But i had no complications other than prem labour but that wasnt because of my weight. I never had high blood pressure, GD or anything else your ment to have when fat. Ok if your too fat to look after your baby or have been told its a very high chance of death to the mother or baby then i dont think its fair. Im assuming your as skinny as a rake? Otherwise you wouldnt ask about something that many women worry about, there is a wide variety of people on here and while many wont be offended by this think of the people who are overweight and struggle with it, reading that isnt going to make them feel any better is it? I think ethical was the wrong word. I dont mean to sound bitchy but i know a few people that would be upset by this i know you were just asking

No I'm not 'skinny as a rake'; when I fell pregnant my BMI was just 25 and I lost 2 stone before I got pregnant. This wasn't meant to offend anyone, I just thought it was an interesting discussion and I couldn't think of a more polite and neutral way of workind things other than to use the word ethical.

I just feel like most people try and become as healthy as possible before becoming pregnant- I quit smoking and I began a healthy diet and excercise programme so I would be as fit as possible for pregnancy. I'm sure most people who are trying to conceive would stop smoking- why wouldn't you try to have a healthy BMI?

It's true that not every woman with a high BMI (I'm not just talking about somebody a few pounds overweight; I mean extremely overweight) will have problems during her pregnancy but they are at a much greater risk than somebody with a healthy BMI.

 

[Dragonfly]

Ok well I am obese and pregnant. I haven't had a problem at all, so no I dont find it ethically wrong.

I am classed as obese with the doc chart thingy. even if i was 10stone I was still classed as over weight, I was under that and boney and still over weight? wtf., Now obese . I am fat and was pregnant twice and nothing was ever mentioned. I think maybe morbidly obese where you cant walk would cause problems.

 

[coccyx]

Are we talking morbidly obese? then yes i think it is irresponsible. Sure we will hear ' everyone has right to a child' but with rights come responsibilities. Surely it must be so hard through the pregnancy

 

[midori1999]

I have a blood disorder which puts myself and my baby at huge risk during a pregnancy. Is it ethical for me to get pregnant?

I think it is every person's own choice and other's shouldn't be so quick to judge. Wanting a child isn't something you can just switch off and losing weight isn't easy for everyone.

I also think it's ignorant beyond belief to think an obese person doesn't know how to have a healthy diet or can't provide a healthy diet for a child. Thin doesn't automatically = healthy diet and obese doesn't automatically mean unhealthy diet. Most of us are aware what a healthy diet consists of, some people just eat far too much of healthy foods or don't follow a healthy diet, despite knowing what it is.

I am overweight, not obese. My diet, is, quite frankly, appalling a lot of the time because I drink too much pepsi max and snack on junk too much. I do home cook though and am quite capable of having a healthy diet if I want to and my three children all have very healthy, varied diets.

 

[v2007]

WOW!!!! What a really offensive thread.

I was overweight and pregnant with my last two.

1 died and 1 had to spend 6 days in SCBU due to crap blood sugars, were they my fault...no but as you have a healthy BMI of 25 who are you to judge and just to add my 2 living kids are healthy and looked after.

Just because some of us Mums are overweight dont mean we are irresponsible.

What about Mums who are addicted to drugs or drink, do they not fall into the same category or is it just us fatties that you have a problem with!!!!!!

 

[smokey]

Im classed as obese and I had trouble getting pregnant in the first place due to PCOS but once I was pregnant I had a very easy pregnancy, I had none of the aches and pains (untill the last 2 weeks of being overdue) or diabities or any other problems thats ment to come along wioth being obese and pregnant.
I also had a very simple easy birth and have had no problems since.

Even though im obese im just as active as any over mummy and im a waitress so on my feet all day and you cant do that sort of job if your not active and healthy.
I wore one of those step measure things one day and apparently due to my job I walk an adverage of 9 miles a day just working alone so how many other people can realy say do that much a day.

Weight isnt everything fair enough it may be a concideration if it means putting yours or your babies life at risk during birth or pregnancy but then that should have been thought about beforhand.

If the woman is realy morbidly obese enough for it to be a real danger then nature is most likely going to step in and she'll find it hard to fall pregnant in the first place.
But I know loads of obese and even some who are classed as morbidly obese ( I realy hate that term) and they make great mummys, a hell of alot better then some others who are"skinney" so I dont thing in the grand scheme of things it realy makes a difference in the long run after all if god forbid somthing is going to happen during pregnancy then it will happen weither your fat or skinny

 

[smokey]

I have a blood disorder which puts myself and my baby at huge risk during a pregnancy. Is it ethical for me to get pregnant?

Thats a good point, I have Spina bifida which can be heredatry even though I took all precautions I could there still was the chance and due to my SB I cant have any form of spinal injection so I knew I couldnt have an epidural and if it came to a CS I would have to be put under, add to that I have a history of coming round during anasthetic and was also warned years ago labour could kill me I still went through with it all because I wanted to bring a baby into the world.
Hubby was under intructions of what to do if anything happened to me but I dont see it as unethical to make my choices.

 

[coccyx]

Not sure why people say its an offensive thread, this section is for debating so will be some opposite views

 

[Laura2919]

Not sure why people say its an offensive thread, this section is for debating so will be some opposite views

Because just because someone is obese doesnt mean they cant have a child. Health issues or not. Its that persons body and that persons choice.

 

[lauzie84]

I would be classed as Obese - BMI of just over 35. Me and my OH decided to have a baby, and I have to say my weight did not cause me any problems when pregnant. Yes I am overweight, but I would like to think I can do the same as any other mummy. I personally think it's the persons own choice whether they want to TTC whilst obese.

 

[Cloberella]

Bringing up other conditions such as a blood disorder and Spina Bifida is irrelevant because you did not choose to have these conditions and you can't avoid having them. You can avoid being obese.

Saying that you personally had no problems while you were pregnant I also think is an irrelevant point as you cannot have known this before you got pregnant- the increased risks were still there.

And for those that think this is an offensive thread- the title clearly stated what the content would be- and it is posted in the debating section of the board.

 

[Laura2919]

Bringing up other conditions such as a blood disorder and Spina Bifida is irrelevant because you did not choose to have these conditions and you can't avoid having them. You can avoid being obese.

Saying that you personally had no problems while you were pregnant I also think is an irrelevant point as you cannot have known this before you got pregnant- the increased risks were still there.

And for those that think this is an offensive thread- the title clearly stated what the content would be- and it is posted in the debating section of the board.

Sometimes you cant. Due to conditions. Not everyone over eats and doesnt exericise.