00:00Emily Chamberlain is a proud mum to her two-year-old son Levi but during her
00:09pregnancy constant comments about her weight from doctors and nurses took their
00:13toll. I remember crying to my husband and saying I feel safer giving birth in
00:17our back paddock in the middle of winter than I do going to hospital. Living in
00:21regional Queensland Miss Chamberlain saw a different clinician for every
00:25maternity milestone and says they always looked at her BMI not her overall health.
00:31How are you doing? Jump on the scale and then we would have that same conversation
00:36again and again. Health professionals say weight discrimination causes unnecessary
00:41stress. We do not improve any health outcomes by making people feel bad about
00:47themselves or by shaming them for how their bodies are. That has long-lasting
00:52consequences for the woman such as depression, anxiety as well as negative
00:58outcomes for the baby. While it's well documented weight plays an important role
01:03in a healthy pregnancy, experts say there's a whole raft of systemic issues
01:08which need to be tackled well before an expectant mum steps foot in an
01:12obstetrician's office. If we are actually really interested in the good health of
01:17our population we need to provide weight inclusive, welcoming, nurturing,
01:23compassionate care. A new program at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital hopes to
01:28learn from the experience of mums to create more empathetic clinicians. It's really
01:33listening to those voices to change the hearts and minds of clinicians. I don't
01:38think any midwife or doctor gets up in the morning to come to work to make
01:43somebody feel bad about their body but often the bit that they don't see is the
01:47flow-on effect of the conversations that they've had.
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