I have no problem with this. They are turning away patients that they are not comfortable treating due to complications hat may overwhelm them. They recognize that their expertise does not include helping obese patients deliver safely and that perhaps their practice is not set up to overcome the related obstacles (exam tables, space, expertise of their affiliated hospital or affiliated practices that cover on-call, etc.) I see it as similar to docs who turn away (or refer elsewhere) diabetic or epileptic moms. I’d say that they owe it to their patients to be honest about what risks they are comfortable managing. And it seems like they are doing that.

The real issue is that a grossly overweight woman could go to a doctor, give birth and then SUE THE DOCTOR for complications she brought upon herself by choosing to be overweight in the first place. Overweight women should be GRATEFUL they have doctors who are able to address the issues all that extra fat brings into the delivery room. Personal size is exactly that: personal, and it’s nobody’s business. But you can’t turn around and sue the person trying to help you bring a baby into the world in clearly dangerous circumstances.

“Choosing to be overweight”??? really???
anyway, this whole issue is a bunch of foolishness. I mean, sure, if only one or two doctors were doing this, it would be no big deal – but if every doctor refused to treat overweight women, where would they get care?

this is crazy. weight is indeed a risk factor. so is smoking, drinking, having a job, lacking exercise, lacking sleep, stress, environmental exposures, and many, many more “personal choices”. these actions are being taken by doctors at the behest of the insurance companies that hold dominion over them. lawsuits and malpractice are out of control in the US and this is one of the effects. maybe one day sanctimonious shrews will be deemed untreatable due to increased risk of intolerable annoyance.

@Mistress_Scorpio That is an excellent point.

It seems to me that women who are overweight would have a greater need for competent OB/Gyn care. A doctor who is only confident and skilled at handling the easiest of cases wouldn’t be my choice of doctor.

Many doctors refuse to treat overweight women anyway – you go in with chest pains or back pains or symptoms of other issues, and you get told, “lose some weight.” No matter what the problem is, many doctors won’t look at a chart or run a test – it’s just “lose some weight.” Check out the website “First, Do No Harm” for some terrible, heartbreaking stories of women suffering cancer, lupus, hypothyroidism, arthritis, MS, and other ailments whose doctors refused to examine them except for a visual scan and “lose some weight.” Honestly, I think most fat people might prefer a doctor making an overt choice – so you don’t waste your time at a doctor who isn’t going to treat you anyway.

Not everyone, Andrea, can keep her weight below a certain threshold healthfully. Especially not women with other health conditions affecting metabolism and mobility. Weight is not always – and never wholly – a personal choice. (Choices we make can affect weight, but not direct it to the extent that infomercials have you believe.) Pregnancy is always a choice. If you insist these women should be made to bear the consequences of their choices, then that is the choice they made which you should criticize.

Interesting. I’m fat and pregnant with my 4th child, and like every other pregnancy i’ve had, it’s completely uneventful. My blood pressure has never gotten above 100/70, my blood sugars are perfect, and my deliveries have been unmedicated and all less than four hours, with no complications whatsoever – not so much as a tear. I’m up on my feet again 30 minutes after birth. I’m a dream patient!

Oddly enough, 80% of my thinner friends have not been nearly as lucky. I think there’s a lot more to healthy pregnancies than weight. Doctors are shortchanging themselves and their patients by refusing to look at the whole picture of the patients in question before they decide who they will and will not treat.

I agree with doctors setting their own weight standards to treat patients. I believe that if they feel they can not provide the best care for the patient they should be honest about it. The media reporting the group in South Florida is not accurate in reporting all the facts. Most likely these doctors are refusing to see the “morbidly obese patient”. Physicians should not be expected to provide the same level of care for a patient who is morbidly obese when they were not trained to do so and they do not have the equipment to handle it. Many morbidly obese people think they are “overweight”. But, in reality a pregnant woman who is around 300 lbs is beyond obese. Manufacturing companies of medical equipment, furnitue, and instrumentation has not provided timely accomodation for this fast growing population. Medical schools in the past were not traning doctors to treat the morbid obese. People have to realize that even a simple pelvic exam cannot be properly done on morbidly obese women. An average size doctor can not palpate the uterus and ovaries of a huge person, it is simply physically impossible. Ultrasound equipment cannot penetrate thick dense layers of fat and yield the same results. Post surgical procedures do not heal the same either. Unfortunately, most of these morbidly obese people are in denial and do not want to face the fact that an extra 100 lbs or more will make a difference. They see themselves as just being “overweight”

At my height, 200 lbs is nowhere near obese. Across the board “no tolerance” guidelines are ridiculous.