Loved working on this paper with you, Sam!!

Talk to a person living in a larger body who has sought fertility care and/or obstetric care, & most can tell you at least one horror story related to weight stigma.

My hope is that this commentary synthesizes this issue concisely & reaches folks in health professions who work with pregnancy.

3. Transforming perinatal care requires systemic change, & we need to look beyond individual providers to make long-lasting improvements for patients in larger bodies. HCOs can reduce weight stigma & societal weight bias by advocating for weight inclusivity in public narratives about weight & size.

2. For pregnant & postpartum individuals, inclusive care involves addressing biases, offering properly sized medical equipment, and supporting behavior change without focusing on weight loss. Compassionate, weight-inclusive care fosters better maternal & infant health outcomes.

Key takeaways 🔑

1. Weight stigma negatively impacts patient outcomes, mental health, and trust in healthcare providers. Providers can address this by shifting from weight-centric approaches to focusing on overall health indicators and practicing sensitive, nonjudgmental communication.

I think this will contribute to orthorexia nervosa & will likely reinforce those behaviors among people who suffer from OrNe

Thank you for writing this, @joanna-buscemi.bsky.social ! Having also started my career in weight loss, I appreciate your transparency about questioning old ways of thinking and revisiting science that we collectively believed to hold universal, capital-T “truths” 🫶🏼

Hahaha!! Yes I can already tell this will come in clutch down the road 😂

Can’t wait to read!!