title: Reproducing stigma: Interpreting "overweight" and "obese" women's experiences of weight-based discrimination in reproductive healthcare.
abstract: Amidst a barrage of policy documents, bio-medical research, and press items concerned with the "crisis" of obesity, a growing scholarship is concerned with what has come to be known as "obesity stigma." This scholarship hails from a range of sources including critical obesity scholars who problematize the idea of obesity as a health concern, as well as from "mainstream" organizations and researchers who, while maintaining obesity is a world-wide health problem, also argue that "obese" people are the targets of discrimination. In this paper, we analyze both interpretations of obesity stigma, particularly as that stigma applies to obese women's experiences of accessing and receiving reproductive care. We describe a qualitative study conducted with 24 overweight and obese women in 2 Canadian cities. Participants related overt and covert experiences of stigma when accessing reproductive care founded in healthcare practitioners' focus on fetal risk and "mother-blame" which, though partially evidence-based, was interpreted by participants as discriminatory. As such, we maintain that any true interruption of obesity stigma in the reproductive healthcare interaction requires a bridge between critical and mainstream scholarship, and careful attention to the risk-based foci in clinical settings which can be interpreted by clients as moralizing.
authors.affiliation: Community Health Education Division, 2219 Health Professions Building, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859, USA. Electronic address: bomba1a@cmich.edu.
authors.forename: Andrea E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Bombak
authors.affiliation: Dept Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, S108F Medical Services Bldg, 750 Bannatyne Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3E 0W3, Canada. Electronic address: Deborah.McPhail@umanitoba.ca.
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: McPhail
authors.affiliation: Centre for Nursing Studies, Newfoundland and Labrador, 100 Forest Rd., St. John's, NL A1A 1E5, Canada. Electronic address: pamela.ward@mun.ca.
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ward
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001835:Body Weight; D002170:Canada; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000523:psychology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000523:psychology*; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D036301:Qualitative Research; D063508:Social Discrimination / Q000523:psychology*; D057545:Social Stigma
keywords: Obesity; Reproductive healthcare; Social stigma