Bariatric Obstetrics Center (Hospital for Obese Preggos)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/magazine/13wwln-essay-t.html?ref=magazine

According to the article found at the above link entitled "Too Fat and Pregnant", 1 out of every 5 moo cow impregnated is already morbidly OBESE, before she even starts out of the stall. SO fat, that a new center has been opened up just to serve them. They are outfitted by special equipment inluding arm blood pressure cuffs that are designed for thighs. Their standard scales, which only go up to 350, have been replaced by scales that go as high as 880 pounds. Before the new equipment came in they were weighing them at the hospital loading dock.


..."doctors are seeing more pregnant women who are morbidly obese, weighing 400, 500, even 600 pounds... The need to manage their conditions, and to meet their logistical needs, is giving rise to a new medical subspecialty, what some are calling “bariatric obstetrics.” Chames, who already sees at least a dozen morbidly obese pregnant women each month, will direct his hospital’s new Center for Bariatric Obstetric Care when it opens later this summer......'

...' Longer surgical instruments are required, as are extra-wide operating-room tables, reinforced to support hundreds of additional pounds.....'
..." the official recommendations on weight gain during pregnancy — which currently advise obese women to put on at least 15 pounds — need to change....."

NO SHIT it needs to change. If you need to be weighed on a hospital loading dock, then I think it's fair to say that you do NOT need to be knocked up. How do they get that way anyway?

This is a sign of the times. Slightly over 50% of the U.S. population is either overweight or obese.

And obese have no business getting pregnant. Its way too risky.

"How do they get that way anyway?"

Chubby-chasers

NYT article: "Honey, I plumped the kids" (long). Copyright NYT.

Suppose you have two groups of pregnant female rats. Rats in the first group can either eat as much regular lab-rat chow as they like, or they can eat their fill of human junk food — cookies, doughnuts, marshmallows, potato chips, muffins, chocolate. Rats in the second group only get chow, but again, can eat as much as they like. After the rats have given birth, continue the different regimens while the pups are suckling. Then give both groups of pups access to the chow and the junk food.

Experiments like this have found that pregnant females with access to junk food ate, on a daily basis, roughly 40 percent more food (by weight) and 56 percent more calories than rats that just had chow. Moreover — and this is the interesting bit — pups whose mothers ate junk food while pregnant and lactating had a greater taste for food high in fat and sugar than those whose mothers did not. The junk-food pups ate more calories and were more prone to gaining weight.

What goes for rats does not necessarily go for humans. Nonetheless, such results are thought-provoking. As everyone knows, humans are getting fatter and fatter. According to the World Health Organization, 400 million adults around the world weighed in as obese in 2005. In the United States, more than a third of women between 20 and 39 are obese, some of them extremely so. For the first time in history, large numbers of obese women are having children.

Being obese during pregnancy is dangerous for the mother and expensive for the health care system. But does it affect the babies?

There are reasons to think it might. The period between conception and birth is crucial — after all, you’re growing from a single cell into a baby. Your heart is being built; your brain is being wired. Exposure to alcohol during this time can disrupt brain development; lack of iodine may permanently stunt growth. Being starved in the womb can lead to health problems such as heart disease later in life, especially if food becomes abundant. So what about overnourishment? Does an “obese” environment in the womb somehow predispose babies to obesity later on?

At the moment, such questions are difficult to answer. Humans are much harder to study than rats, and the phenomenon of obesity in pregnancy is relatively new, so we don’t know much about it yet. Moreover, many factors contribute to someone’s becoming obese, and picking them apart is tricky. Added to that, an “obese” environment in the womb has two separate elements: the nutrients provided by the mother via the food she eats, and the hormonal environment of someone who is overweight. (Being obese can profoundly alter a woman’s hormonal profile.) Again, picking these apart is hard.

But the results of several studies suggest that the very fact of a woman being obese during pregnancy may predispose her children to obesity. For example, one study found that children born to women who have lost weight after radical anti-obesity surgery are less likely to be obese than siblings born before their mother lost weight. Another study looked at women who gained weight between pregnancies; the results showed that babies born after their mothers put on weight tended to be heavier at birth than siblings born beforehand. Since the mother’s genes haven’t changed, the “fat” environment seems likely to be responsible for the effect.

Why might this happen? Perhaps an “obese” environment in the womb alters the wiring of the developing brain so as to interfere with normal appetite control, fat deposition, taste in food, or metabolism. Studies on other animals suggest that parts of the brain that control appetite develop differently under “obese” conditions. And in humans, one study has found that babies born to obese mothers have lower resting metabolic rates than babies whose mothers are of normal weight.

For most of our evolutionary past, the problem has been avoiding starvation. An environment awash with sugars and fats is, therefore, an evolutionary novelty: in hundreds of millions of years of evolution, this is the first time such foods have been abundant. Giant quantities of fats and sugars have not, historically, been available to a developing fetus, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they do have a harmful impact.

If this is right, it raises the alarming possibility that the obesity epidemic has a built-in snowball effect. If children born to obese mothers are, owing to the environment in the womb, predisposed to obesity, they may find staying thin especially hard. Reversing the epidemic may thus rest on helping women to lose weight before they conceive and helping them to eat a balanced, non-junk-food diet while they are pregnant. The well-being of the next generation may depend on it.

Olivia Judson, a contributing columnist for The Times, writes The Wild Side at nytimes.com/opinion. Frank Rich is off today.

Part of me has to wonder how penetration can even be achieved for the very very large women. No offense to ladies on the large side, but if you're 500 pounds and you have about 12 inches of booty cushion, is intercourse even possible? I wonder if any of these women went the turkey-baster method.

It doesn't help that a lot of women regardless of their weight believe being pregnant also means "eating for two" -- a.k.a. gorging themselves and gaining 60-100 pounds 'for tha baybee'.

Just my humble opinion, but I think this center should be used to help women lose some weight before getting pregnant. Being obese while pregnant can cause all sorts of problems...there's a greater chance for infections to take root, there's a higher chance of pregnancy complications, a higher chance of the kid being born with the dreaded neural tube defects (the risk is doubled for obese women) and a better chance of the newly-hatched loaf ending up in NICU. And the costs of pre-natal treatment for obese preggos is a lot higher than it is for women of normal or overweight.

Bet you can guess who pays for that.

this is something I want no part of. (puts fingers in ears and yells la-la-la while running away.)

these are the bitches that have them in the toilet while pinching a loaf. Enjoying your lunch?

i see the fat bashers are out..

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/

please read this..

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

mercurior Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i see the fat bashers are out..
>
> http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/
>
> please read this..

Come on, if you are interetsed in having a healthy baby and a lower-risk pregnancy, and you are planning for that child, you need to be in the best shape you can. Having surgery to be less fat is irresponsible.

Further, there is a huge difference between eating as an olympian and eating for fun. I think that article is irrelevant.

SIGH, oh here we go with over sensitive MERC AGAIN, WAHHHHHH WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH


you wine about people who speak an opinion about religion and now you wine that someone has an opinion on VERY FAT chicks having babies. and this refers to you how???????????????????????????????????

did i say i was upset.. no.. just heres the fat bashers again.. and some information..

less than 10 words and now i am over sensitive.. i am not, and not surprised any more about this board.

At least read that blog..

all bariatric surgery is dangerous, it can cause death.. to have it to have a child.. is beyond foolish. to have it for any reason.. is foolish..

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Merc your a complete bore

Fine, what more can be said..

and the feeling is mutual..

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

well said

I think there is a HUGE difference in being overweight, even downright fat, than being SO morbidly obese that you have to be weighed on a LOADING DOCK SCALE(like the article mentioned). Then, being that obese and knowing the health risks to yourself and a baybee and allowing yourself to get knocked up. I think that is highly irresponsible, a higher cost to tax payers if they are on medicaid or causing a higher insurance premium to everyone if they have health insurance. Not to mention, it's just plain gross to see a 700 lb pregnant woman as it creates too many disgusting visuals, as if enough were'nt already visible.

I can understand how someone could get extremely overweight as there are many factors involved. However, when their weight reaches loading dock scale weight, it's just absurd and with the exception of a few RARE cases, completely avoidable and caused by pure gluttony and laziness. Then you add getting preggo to it and it makes me sick on my stomach. I don't mean to offend the very fat who are members, but I doubt anyone on here weighs 500+ pounds and I KNOW none of use are having babies.

I agree, kim- anyone that far along in their obesity has enough issues without having a baby.

and most fatties claim the old tired excuse "thyroid problem" when in fact most just eat to much garbage and dont get off the couch.!!!

im no skin and bones, but i dont make excuses, i love to eat!! so its my fault

YES MWR, You are absolutely correct about the fatties down south and how they dress, their hygiene, and general demeanor. I have seen women who weigh in excess of 300 lbs at Walmart in spandex shorts that were riding up between their thighs, tank tops with no bra and their arms striped with purple stretch marks, bellies hanging from underneath 3 size too small DIRTY t-shirts, matted and/or greasy hair as if they just rolled up out of bed, etc.....and lately I have seen some going to the corner convenience store in pajamas. The first time I saw one it was about 7am, and the place was PACKED with people on their way to work.

My first thought was, SURELY they are sick or have a sick kid or something and are just running in to get some Nyquil or chicken noodle soup. So, being the people observer that I am, I watched what they bought. Mountain dew, Debbie's snack cake, some Krispy cremes, a lottery ticket and a bag of chips. Those items could have waited until they bathed and dressed appropriately.IMO. Apparently it's some new trend to just go out in public in pajamas. One night I saw a waddling cow and her two chubby little calves who were WAY too old to be in pajamas(9-12 age range). Yet, they all three had on matching pink Hello Kitty pajamas, AND the matching slippers. They had a cart and were shopping, as if this was "normal".

lol im from the south to Florida and Georgia, and you have nailed it, walk into any walmart any time of day and thats what you see, its gross, its not only fat but just scummy and dirty to

nokyds4me Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> lol im from the south to Florida and Georgia,
> and you have nailed it, walk into any walmart any
> time of day and thats what you see, its gross,
> its not only fat but just scummy and dirty to


That's true, as there are thin and nasty white trash out at Wallyworld as well. It's just that the fat ones are more noticable because they take up so much room with riding the scooters. Generally, the WHOLE clan comes to town together with 400lb meemaw riding the Hov a round that Wallyworld provides. Then there's Aunt Eunice who is fat in her own rite but not "scooter fat" yet, and then her hubby who is usually dirty, but generally quite thin. Then you have the chubby little kids in strollers, the teen moo who has on God awful tight clothes and is generally knocked up and has eye brow and nose rings and is especially proud of her belly ring and tramp stamp, and a coupla of other dirty little kids in tow as well.

I realize this sounds stereotypical, but it wouldn't be so sterotypical if it wasn't so common and SO true.

kidlesskim said

That's true, as there are thin and nasty white trash out at Wallyworld as well. It's just that the fat ones are more noticable because they take up so much room with riding the scooters. Generally, the WHOLE clan comes to town together with 400lb meemaw riding the Hov a round that Wallyworld provides. Then there's Aunt Eunice who is fat in her own rite but not "scooter fat" yet, and then her hubby who is usually dirty, but generally quite thin. Then you have the chubby little kids in strollers, the teen moo who has on God awful tight clothes and is generally knocked up and has eye brow and nose rings and is especially proud of her belly ring and tramp stamp, and a coupla of other dirty little kids in tow as well.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

holy shit, that is so true, lol lol lol and like i said, NO matter what time of day you go to walmart you can see this exact family, and why is it that the real skinny trashy guys wearing their dirty camoflauge hats love the fatties?

I also notice that alot of the white trash fatties are always "single moos"

I feel hypocritical, because occasionally I shop at Wally World. But I honestly hate that place. All they sell is junk food, beer and polyester clothes. Oh, and guns. They call themselves a company with family values. I'm not sure how encouraging people to eat junk food, drink beer and shoot guns is having family values.

I shop at walmart every week, its gross and full of breeding trash, but its cheap

"but not "scooter fat" yet"

HA! Great expression! Oh yes, we have the "scooter fat" here in Michigan, land of cream of mushroom soup casseroles! I see 'em at Meijer's, sloooooowly scootering down the aisles. Oh my.

I hear all of that. I admit I am surely no skinny minny at 200 pounds, but I still honestly cannot understand how some people allow themselves to get up to 300, 400 500 or more pounds. I understand many health conditions and medications cause weight gain, but clearly those are not entirely to blame. If you were to follow one of these massive people around for a day of shopping, chances are good they'd stock up on Little Debbie snacks and soda pop and frozen pizza. Nothing wrong with those things (I love me the occasional Fudge Round XD), but the key is fucking moderation. I know those snacks are sometimes cheap, but it's very easy to find cheap healthy food too. Of course, this requires movement and looking and possibly weighing stuff if its fresh produce and it seems a lot of these really massive people only know where the snack cakes and cookies are.

Fuck, I hardly eat snacks and I don't touch soda anymore, and I'm still a fat ass. I'd hate to see myself if I lived off snack foods and carbonated water. I'm not trying to bash fat people, but there's a line to be drawn between chubby/fat and extremely obese. DO these people understand that the more overweight they are, the more unhealthy they will be and the shorter their life spans will be?

I recall reading something (will provide link later) about a lady who was on the list of "World's Fattest People", and this woman was about 1300 pounds. No joke. No offense to her, but she was massive - I think even Jabba the Hut would have kowtowed to her. She couldn't walk on her own and was bed-ridden most of her life. She died when she was about 29 from...ready? A heart attack. Yes, she was so large and unhealthy that she had a heart attack before she turned 30.

It's not even a matter of making fun of these folks (even though some are funny -- the 'fat stereotypes', for example)...but more of a matter of them being at such a weight that their lives are at risk. I've seen the scooter people in Wal-Fart too, and I can only wonder how many large folks who board the scooters do so for medical reasons (arthritis, etc.) and how many use them because they can't be arsed to walk for an hour.