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Too fat for vaginal birth?

6K views 32 replies 27 participants last post by  Maiasaura 
#1 ·
can any mws please respond to this.

At first I couldn't stop laughing, the argument seems just plain stupid.

An obgyn told a women patient i know that since she was obese her chances of section are much higher. Not because of obesity related diseases, but because "sometimes the baby gets blocked by the fat". this woman is fairly tall, but around 270lbs. I don't think she's all that big, but thats beside the point.
 
#27 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by hippiemom
I think the congenital defect thing has much much MUCH more to do with overall health ( and thin does not always =healthy) than what the scale says. If you are overweight and have other health issues with BP, blood sugar, liver function, whatever, yes that is a risk BUT if you are overweight and have good health overall, you are fine.
And of course the flip side to that is that sometimes the weight is the result of the health problem that contributes to the increased likelihood of congenital problems. It's all corellational, not causal.

Another facotr may be age. It's well known that the risk of certain defects increase with maternal age; it's also known that women tend to gain a bit of weight as we age. There are just too many factors contributing to too slight of a difference to say that excess weight causes defects.

And who decides what is overweight/obese anyway? People from some cultures are just heavier.
 
#28 ·
Well I only had gest diabetes with my FIRST baby in which I was thinner than I was with my second baby (and no diabetes.) I was 230 at the time of my natural vaginal homebirth with Daph. I say it's a bunch of crap. I did wonder if I was "too fat" for a homebirth at first. Nope, I wasnt. LOL I pushed her out in 5 minutes too. I've heard people say that fat people cant push a baby out as well cause they arent in shape. That's a load of garbage IMO.
 
#29 ·
Fat people aren't in shape?!
Ok, so I'm not huge, but I'm 5'8" and non-pg around 200--according to the CDC I'm "obese." Let me tell you that weight came in very handy at judo practice! I had to quit a couple of years back due to an injury but I was in fabulous shape--as was the other "obese" woman in the club.

Yeah, so it's all about balance, I still think it's easier to flip a 300 lb, 6-1/2 ft tall marine over my head and slam him into the mat if I weigh two-thirds what he does rather than one-third.

But that's just me...

And I'm going seriously off-topic...
 
#30 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Kannon99
I thought it was supposed to the be other way around. More dangerous for a C-section if overweight. My 5'2" friend is 300lb and was told they would try everything they could for her to birth vaginally.
As a morbidly obese (or whatever they are calling it these days) woman, I really felt it was more important for me to avoid a surgical birth than thinner women, because I felt like my recovery time would be worse, given my excess abdominal adiposity. It does seem, at least anecdotally, that larger women are more likely to have c-sections. I was involved with a plus sized mothering site, and very few women had vaginal births.

I also felt like my OBs were pushing me towards surgery because of my size. I ended up having a 14 hour hospital birth with my first, epidural, pitocin augmentation and a 7 hour homebirth with my second.

I have heard that the excess fat tissue in the vaginal area is supposed to cause more problems, the shoulder dystocia Flapjack mentioned. I've also read of midwives who do not have obese patients because they are considered high risk. Thank goodness my midwife was not one of those.
 
#32 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by saritabeth
ummmmm wouldn't major abdominal surgery be more risky for an overweight woman than a vaginal delivery??! If there are no other risks, hypertension, diabetes etc. I can't really get what the big deal is...sheesh!
That is what I thought. In what I have learned, it has been rather clear that the possible difficulties in perfoming a c/s on obese women are increased due to the extra weight. There are even, beleive it or not, drs out there that will try harder to avoid a c/s with overweight patients due to the increase in possible complications.
 
#33 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Ammaarah
I am a big woman who was sectioned due to having an asynclitic baby, whose sideways head prevented me from dilating on the hospital timetable, and since my membranes had ruptured, I chickened out on waiting.
OT: would you explain this in lay terms? somehow it seems like maybe what they told me about my ds, and i had an emergency C-section. i remember them saying something like "his head is like a key and it won't fit in the lock". is that what you are describing?
oh, and my water broke hours before that happened.

you can email me off-list if you think it more appropriate.
maiasaurawh@bellsouth.net

thanks!
pamela
 
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