No Excuses

If you're a woman who's pregnant, don't let your weight slide. Sure you'll have a big belly and you need to eat more but make sure that you're not eating more than is recommended. Help out the demographic and you can be the one that lowers the percentage of morbidly obese pregnant woman. Check out the New York Times article for more information.

Too Fat and Pregnant
By Annie Murphy Paul 13 June 2008

The offices of Dr. Mark Chames, an obstetrician at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor, are outfitted with some special equipment. The blood-pressure cuffs used on patients’ arms are actually thigh cuffs, originally designed to strap around a leg. Standard scales, which measure up to 350 pounds, have been supplemented by ones that accommodate 880 pounds. Before the new scales arrived, some patients were weighed at the hospital loading dock.

After decades in which the obesity epidemic spread to every demographic group in the nation, it has also ended up here: the maternity ward. One in five women who give birth in the U.S. is obese, according to Susan Chu, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And doctors are seeing more pregnant women who are morbidly obese, weighing 400, 500, even 600 pounds. More...