General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "Pregnant, obese...and in danger" [View all]laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)I had an OB with my first child that was so scared shitless that I was overweight, that he interfered so much that he caused many of the problems he was dreading. He was convinced my baby was 12 lbs at 37 weeks and tried many ways to induce me short of giving me an oxytocin drip. When one of those methods finally took at 40 weeks, after 30 hours of labor he freaked out it was taking so long and gave me a c-section. Baby was 6.5 lbs. Not 12.
He was also so convinced that I would have gestational diabetes that even though I passed 2 screenings, he kept sending me for screenings. Now, generally, a woman's blood sugar does climb steadily during pregnancy. It's why the screening is supposed to be done at 24 weeks. But my doctor sent me every 3 weeks for screenings starting at 20 weeks until, not surprisingly, I failed at 34 weeks. He then sent me for further testing and even thought THAT was borderline normal, he officially stated I had gestational diabetes and decided I needed to document everything. I was a first time mom and terrified. He told me about all the awful things that would happen now that I had GD. I had to test my blood sugar 8 times a day and he wanted me to keep it below 5 after a meal (not sure what that is in US measurements) when most women with GD are able to keep it between 6-7. I kept it pretty low, but if I had 1 reading that was too high for him (5.8 was high for him) he accused me of not being compliant.
At any rate, when my baby was born at 6.5 lbs, not 12 lbs, I think he knew he had overreacted. He dismissed me as a patient when I started asking questions.
My second child I had a different doctor. I wasn't diagnosed with GD at all, and I went on to have a normal labor and delivery - no c-section. And another smallish baby. (7lbs even).
My first doctor, I know now, caused my crappy delivery and c-section because I was fat. So perhaps a lot of these bad outcomes happen because doctors are implementing interventions based on their prejudices. Not saying all outcomes are because of that, but it wouldn't surprise me if a large percentage were due to doctor's opinions on fat women. My second doctor told me he hadn't seen that being fat caused horrible outcomes or anything and told me he would treat me like any other woman. And he did. And I had a much better outcome.