Weight stigma in maternity care: women’s experiences and care providers’ attitudes

Study One investigated associations between pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and experiences of maternity care from a state-wide, self-reported survey of 627 Australian women who gave birth in 2009. Study Two involved administration of an online survey to 248 Australian pre-service medical and maternity care providers, to investigate their perceptions of, and attitudes towards, providing care for pregnant patients of differing body sizes. Both studies used linear regression analyses.Women with a higher BMI were more likely to report negative experiences of care during pregnancy and after birth, compared to lower weight women. Pre-service maternity care providers perceived overweight and obese women as having poorer self-management behaviours, and reported less positive attitudes towards caring for overweight or obese pregnant women, than normal-weight pregnant women. Even care providers who reported few weight stigmatising attitudes responded less positively to overweight and obese pregnant women.Overall, these results provide preliminary evidence that weight stigma is present in maternity care settings in Australia. They suggest a need for further research into the nature and consequences of weight stigma in maternity care, and for the inclusion of strategies to recognise and combat weight stigma in maternity care professionals’ training.Weight stigma is the exhibition of prejudiced attitudes (e.g., attribution of negative labels such as lazy, unclean, and unintelligent) and discriminatory actions (e.g., teasing, providing inferior quality education, health or other services) towards an individual based upon their weight and body size alone (see [1] for a review). Weight stigma is the fourth most common form of discrimination in the United States, and studies from Australia, Europe and North America document its presence across a range of professional settings [2]. Weight stigma has serious negative consequences for targeted individuals’ psychological and physic