If you saw Britain’s Biggest Babies last night then you’ll know what I mean by “Ouch!”

This ITV documentary looked into the growing issue of large babies being born to obese mothers. Linked closely with the raging obesity epidemic, it offered some interesting insight into the world of being obese and pregnant and why the number of overweight newborns is on the increase. Is our addiction to junk food having an affect on our children before they are even born?

Having never given birth I write this blog with an open-mind. I have often thought if I were to decide to have a child would I need to lose weight? Though I’ve never seriously believed it would be as much as a risk as I do now.

I can relate with most of the women featured in this programme. Most were 20 Stone plus and around my age. Though, all had given birth, or were due to give birth to a larger than average babies.

To officially label a newborn baby as obese they must weigh at least 9.9lbs. The biggest baby in the world was recorded in 2007 in Siberia, baby Nadia weighed 17lbs at birth. Britain’s official biggest baby was Guy Carr who weighed 15.8lbs. Guy did not stay big for long though, now 16 he’s a normal size and doesn’t suffer with any weight problems. His mother did not report any health complications from giving birth to such a huge baby either.

However, the pregnancy and child birth horror stories were recounted one by one by the other mothers. One woman described how it took 13 attempts to inject her epidural, with only 2 of the injections being successful. A home-video showed her infected cesarean scar. She was unable to carry her baby for sometime after she’d given birth. One woman experienced so much pain during pregnancy that she would wet herself because she was too weak to reach the bathroom. Another, told of how her waters broke unexpectedly early during her pregnancy and she was under hospital supervision. Another told how her daughter’s neck was injured during birth and how she now has a permanent problem.

Statistics say that 1 in 5 pregnant women are obese and even more shocking that 50% of all women who die during childbirth are overweight or obese.

In recent weeks, death during childbirth has hit the headlines. In Scotland more women die during childbirth than anywhere else in Western Europe. Is it any surprise then to hear that Scottish women are also the fattest women in Europe, with over 60% classed as overweight or obese?

The connection between obese mothers and overweight babies is being researched. A study on the behavior of rats led to some interesting results. A group of rats were split into two, the first group were fed on normal rat pellets and the second were fed on junk food, high in salt and sugar.

Of the two groups the rats who consumed the junk food gave birth to bigger babies. Their offspring were seen eating a higher volume of food and also recorded as preferring the junk food over the normal rat pellets. Human DNA and rat DNA are closely matched, and experts are suggesting a link between food consumed by the mother and the overall weight and eating behavior of her children.

However, the programme also featured Gemma, a 25 stone pregnant lady who was told to expect a 10lb baby due to her size. Yet when she eventually gave birth, the newborn weighed a modest 6.6lbs.

One issue I felt this documentary pushed to the side was the presence of a “fat” gene in these pregnant women. I mean this is something that even old Trinny & Susannah have caught on to in their most recent show The Great British Body. Why did they not offer this research to the reason as to why some children suffer with obesity and some don’t?

With so many factors affecting our lives is it sensible to state that if the mother is obese then she should expect to have large baby, who will go on to develop childhood obesity? I’m not so sure.

However, I do strongly believe the health complications that an obese pregnant woman is at risk of suffering, should be made more public. One doctor even said “Obese women do not think they’re at risk”. If this is true then why are we not doing something to inform them?

Experts say that obese women have more stressful births. They are at risk of being refused an epidural due to their weight, they are more likely to develop bleeding complications, lose excess blood and even develop blood clots.

Britain’s Biggest Babies should be congratulated for documenting Karen’s case. At 34 years old she was pregnant with her second child at the start of the show. She was diagnosed with Diabetes after giving birth to her first child, in which she gained an extra 6 stone in weight.

Thankfully, she had managed to control her weight enough during her current pregnancy. However, when it came to give birth she was told she would have to have a cesarean. During the surgery the doctor had to embarrassingly strap back her excess tummy fat out of the way with thick tape. At that moment Karen was already speaking about having a third child. Baby Rio was then born weighing 10.9lb.

It wasn’t until after the birth Karen began to experience problems. Excessive bleeding began to panic doctors until eventually Karen was told it would be extremely dangerous for her to experience another pregnancy and that the best course of action would be to remove her uterus.

I felt for this woman considerably. She clearly wanted more children, yet ultimately her weight cut this dream short.

I began to think how I would feel if this happened to me. If I fell pregnant now I would definitely be inclined to keep the child, even though I’m not in relationship. However, it would already be too late for me to do something about my weight. Dieting during pregnancy is never usually advised. So what would I do?

It was then I started to think about education. How as youths we are taught about sex; the facts, the risks, the biology. Yet once we become parents, we are suddenly faced with a whole host of other risks that could have been prevented if we’d known about them sooner.

I know I’m fat; I know I should eat less and exercise more. I know because the government tells me. What I didn’t know before this documentary is that my overweight body could become a dangerous place to carry a baby. That my baby could grow so big and that my weight could be the cause of this. That during birth doctors might have to break my baby’s arms or collar bone so they can deliver it safely. And that after all this I could still be at risk of bleeding to death or suffering with blood clots and infection. It’s this worrying issue that has played on my mind since watching this documentary.

I end feeling Britain’s Biggest Babies failed to report on the issue of “why”? Why are more big babies being born? However, it did bring issues to my attention that I now feel relieved to know. It’s just a shame more people are not given these facts before it’s too late.

Photograph sourced from www.a2mediagroup.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Daisy's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.