Interesting Article: Doctors refusing to treat overweight patients
 

This might need moved. Wasn't sure where to put it. What do you all think about this one?
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/...eat-overweight

Original story link here:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/health/f...0,333407.story
but it stems from the absurdly high numbers of lawsuits after difficult births caused by the patients' obesity.

This is very interesting. Although my OB didn't have a problem with me at all. She said she has "fluffy" patients deliver healthy babies ALL the time. Although my top weight was AFTER preganancy. I don't think I was past 240 when pregnant.

I would think it would be frustrating for doctors to treat obese patients. especially when so many of those afflicted with obesity have such a hard time managing weightloss at all. I speak from my own experience. i just couldn't get it together to stick to a plan for so many years.

I know that obesity causes complications at times...but, I also wonder how many times a doctor clearly screws up and the patient happens to be obese and his/her obsesity becomes the scapegoat for the docs?

I would agree except we're talking about pregnancy here. How much can the doctor really screw things up?

You're kidding right? They mess up A LOT with pregnancy and birth. A LOT.

Even with pregnancy the most predominant dangers would be: gestational diabetes and high blood pressure and toxemia. All of these I see in regular weight people too. And your right John... aside from IGNORING SYMPTOMS and letting them go untreated I can't think of what the doctor would be screwing up...

I was 220 with my first pregnancy and 255 with my second. Both were using nurse midwives in a hospital. With neither did I use drugs or eipidurals etc - completely natural. Both my babies were huge, healthy and perfect.

Where obese women run into problems is it's harder to get an epidural and there are more chances of C-section complications. And, of course, if you get induced, your chances of needing an epidural go up. If you get induced and/or you get an epidural, your chances of needing a c-section go up. So, what these doctors are probably seeing is taht the obese patients who are having c-sections and epidurals have more complications than skinnier pregnant ladies. But the question is - why are so many c-sections being performed when REALLY only 5% of women need them but at many hospitals nearly half all babies are born via c-section. (And most of these ladies think they 'needed' one - when they didn't. THey just believed their doctors which is mostly bunk, but how can you know? And who would risk their baby's life?) The ethics/principles of OB/Gyn in the USA is frightening.

I agree. What I mean is doctors usually are not the cause of the complication they just deal with them as they arise which obviously was not clear at all. I was responding to a specific point of doctors first screwing up and then blaming the obesity as the problem which I personally don't think is the case.

I believe this is simply just doctors who based on their experience don't want to take any more chances with their livelyhood than they need to.

I was about 240 with both of my children. I had an epidural with both and had to be induced for the second (I didn't want to be- but I was two weeks overdue). I think the doctors are doing C-Sections as a control play and b/c it is easier for them.

I was thinking more of complications during gestation as opposed just labor and delivery. I think a lot more mistakes can happen during irregular labor and delivery. But even at my weight the epidural and the inducement were easily done with no complications.

It's disheartening to see.

I know I'm overweight, and am actively working on making that not so. However, goodness forbid I have a life while I'm still overweight and maybe get pregnant.

Hopefully it sticks to that small number of private practice doctors in Florida, and doesn't give my doctor's office any ideas.

Birth: A History by Tina Cassidy.

I recommend that to anyone who thinks that birth in North America is straight forward and that doctors 'fix' complications as they arise.

My son almost died from severe shoulder dystocia brought on by a myriad of unnecessary interventions by OBGYNs. Upon further research into it, I am certainly not alone. The doctors apologized to me after.

And I was 160lbs at delivery and an athlete. For obese women or those with non-immediate life threatening complications (aka just high BMI, or standard gestational diabetes), the odds of unnecessary intervention is even higher.

I once read that OB/GYN's, far more than any other type of doctor, face the most malpractice lawsuits. That could mean that OB/GYN's screw up a lot, or that patients just think so, possibly because the potential results of complications are so severe.

Like most things in life, I'm sure it's a bit of both. If the incident results in the death and/or injury to an infant, there is **** to pay and people will not let it go. Often, with other type of malpractice incidents, people are less willing to go into the lengths it really requires to conduct a malpractice lawsuit (that, and the ability to show direct causation is probably likelier). In this sense, I feel OBGYNs will be bigger 'targets' in terms of who will or won't file suit.

On the other hand, OBGYNs are just that, medical doctors who in North America now oversee even the most simple routine labours, something that really doesn't need to be in their jurisdiction. A midwife and doula is perfectly capable of supervising and conducting most deliveries, and have been shown over and over again to use less medical interventions with successful results.

OBGYNs, often reserved only for complicated labours (pre-E, gestational diabetes, transverse breech, multiples) in most countries, are forced to oversee and supervise routine births and IMO, tend to jump the gun and encourage medical interventions to speed things up/make it easier to manage.

With some labours, such as mine (I was 5'5, 160lbs, and in the gym the day I was suddenly induced), it can have disastrous consequences. I simply should have been left alone. But I trusted them, and my boy paid the price for it. She was a good woman, the OBGYN, but things should have been done differently from the start.

I just came over here to post that article and saw you already had. I hope this is not going to start a trend for other specialties too. Boy if I wasn't already encouraged to lose weight this would do it for sure.