Listening to larger bodied women: Time for a new approach to maternity care

As a group of maternity consumers and advocates from across Australia, who live in larger bodies, we are concerned that the current weight-centric approach to maternity care is creating unintended harm for pregnant, birthing and postnatal women. As a group we have lived experience of hospital birth and homebirth, continuity of care and fragmented care models, waterbirth, induction of labour, caesarean birth, pregnancy loss and stillbirth. We share the common, unwelcome experience of weight stigma in our maternity care, which remains one of the few unchallenged sources of bias and discrimination both in society generally and healthcare more specifically [1].

Source: Women and Birth - July 17, 2023 Category: Midwifery Authors: Ahlia Griffiths, Sara Kingsley, Zena Mason, Renee Tome, Malyssa Tomkinson, Bec Jenkinson Source Type: research