Hospital has banned fat women from giving birth . . .

I think the hospital would be on higher ground if they actually did a risk assessment on each mom before turfing her out. If they looked at things like previous birth experiences, substance abuse issues, and relative fitness, for all the mothers, seems like some of the larger moms might be less risky than others (and some of the skinnier chicks might be more!). To shift them based ONLY on their weight feels like a knee-jerk reaction.

Other than that, though, I'm going to stick up for the hospital. To say that a lower-tech facility that relies heavily on midwives and less invasive birthing techniques has to gear up to be able to cover more complicated births seems unrealistic. They are what they are, and from what the article said, their patients are very pleased to have this lower tech option. To insist that they have to sacrifice that--no doubt at great cost and major disruption--and take an entirely different approach means that the entire character of the place will have to change. We don't tell birthing clinics here that they have to be prepared to handle high risk births--only that they have to hand off to a better equipped facility should the need arise.

By focusing only on weight and not making it just one part of a more detailed assessment, and by not considering that some larger women have done very well in delivering their children without complications, I think the hospital has made itself into a lightening rod for controversy. If they back off a little and opt to use a truly objective standard that doesn't focus solely on weight they might get a better reaction.

The bottom line is that both babies and moms can have a tougher time when the mom is very overweight. Sending all of these patients to another facility without even the pretense of discussion is wrong. But so is insisting that a lower-level facility completely revamp what is a successful program so that every eventuality can be covered.

Does anyone know what kind of distance the women would have to travel for higher-risk care?