Written by members of our Lived Experience Expert Group, with Cheif Investigator Dr Bec Jenkinson, and published in the world leading midwifery journal, Women and Birth, this discussion paper documents consumer concerns that the current weight-centric approach to maternity care is creating unintended harm for pregnant, birthing and postnatal women. As a group, the authors have lived experience of hospital birth and homebirth, continuity of care and fragmented care models, waterbirth, induction of labour, caesarean birth, pregnancy loss and stillbirth. They share the common, unwelcome experience of weight stigma in maternity care, which remains one of the few unchallenged sources of bias and discrimination both in society generally and healthcare more specifically. In this article, the authors weave their lived experiences into a call for change in maternity care.
Brisbane GP, Dr Jess van den Heuval, is part of our broader Body Positive Birth team. Jess has been doing a study about weight stigma attitudes and beliefs amongst Australian GPs. In August 2024, Jess (ably assisted by her baby) presented her work Australasian Association for Academic Primary Care Conference in Sydney. Jess's study found that GPs are disastisifed with the traditional weight centric approach to maternity care, and keen to evolve their approach to focus on actual clinical outcomes (not weight in isolation). However, GPs also need quality reference materials and support to do that.
RADIANT's Best Practice Principles for Weight Inclusive Maternity Care aim to help fill that need for Australian GPs.
Thanks for flying the Body Positive Birth flag, Jess!
On Wed 19 June, RADIANT Chief Investgator Prof Leonie Callaway gave an invited presentation as part of the Mercy Perinatal Twilight Seminar Series. This seminar series is very popular and respected amongst medical and midwifery professionals, and attracted a great audience. After her presentation, Leonie joined a panel discussion with two other speakers. A recording of the webinar is available, please contact us if you would like to access the recording.
On March 21, 2024, Ahlia, Bec, Briony, Lauren and Leonie, from the RADIANT team hosted a webinar as part of the Women's Healthcare Australasia Leading Thinkers series. Our multidisciplinary panel including consumer, researcher, midwifery and obstetric medical perspectives discussed and reflected on the current weight-centric approach to maternity care, possible unintended impacts, and the need for paradigm shift, including:
- Larger bodied women’s perspectives on current approaches to maternity care
- The importance of partnership with consumers in the Body Positive Birth program of research.
- Socioecological perspectives and the evidence of the impact of weight stigma on women
- Midwifery perspectives on working with the tensions in our current guidelines for larger bodied women
- Obstetric medical reflections on evolving from BMI-focussed approaches to weight inclusive clinical practice
You can watch a replay of the webinar here. (after creating a free account).
RADIANT Investigators, Bec, Lauren and Ahlia travelled to Christchurch, New Zealand to attend the Annual Congress of the Perinatal Societey of Australia and New Zealand. We presented a poster, entitled "Using photovoice to understand larger bodied women’s experiences of maternity care", to share the results of the pilot work that led to the RADIANT study. The poster was awarded "Best of the Best" and we were invited to give a short oral presentation as well.
RADIANT Investigator, Dr Briony Hill, was recently invited to Chair a symposium at the Australasian Society for Behavioural Health and Medicine Conference, held on the Gold Coast in February 2025. Our team was ready to fly the RADIANT flag, with a collection of presentations entitled "Perinatal weight stigma: Voices from women, healthcare and policy":
- RADIANT consumer investigator Tina Siale (second from the right) opened the symposium with a truly powerful account of her lived experience across her five pregnancies.
- Briony's PhD student, Michelle Dever (central), then shared her findings from an international survey on women's experiences of weight stigma in during preconception, pregnancy and postpartum periods - describing how women of all body sizes encounter weigth stigma in many different settings: from home, to healthcare, to the workplace and more.
- RADIANT investigator Assoc Prof Lauren Kearney (right) then presented her findings from the MatCARES study, which was an Australian survey of weight stigma attitudes and beliefs amongst midwives, GPs and obstetricians. The survey found high levels of empathy amongst maternity care providers, but evidence of also believes that a person's weight is fully under their individual control.
- RADIANT Investigator, Dr Bec Jenkinson (second from the left) gave a whistle stop tour of the findings from the RADIANT photovoice study and interviews with weight-inclusive maternity care providers, before sharing a sneak peak at our work in progress on the Best Practice Principles for Weight Inclusive Matenrity Care.
- Finally it was back to our fearless chair, Briony (left), to summarise the policy situation - demonstrating that while there is some recognition of weigth stimga in Australia health policy, actionable strategies and implementation plans are rarely evident.
The presentation sparked an interesting conversation with the audience about how researchers can avoid weight stigma in the design of their studies!
Our Chief Investigators Prof Leonie Callaway and Associate Professor Lauren Kearney both work with Queensland's Metro North Hosptial and Health Service. These connections with health services are vital to ensuring the Body Positive Birth program of research actually leads to change in maternity services.
Big thanks to Body Positive Birth Lived Experience Expert Group member, Zena Mason, for agreeing to be interviewed for this ABC News article about weight stigma in maternity care. Published on Sept 4 2023.
Our early consumer involvement was funded by a Health Translation Queensland Microgrant. This short article describes the amazing impact of that small bucket of funding. From little things, big things grow!
Chief Investigator, Dr Bec Jenkinson and Lived Experience Expert, Zena Mason, talk to ABC radio about weight stigma in maternity care. Listen from 10m19s to hear the news item from 6 Sept 2023.
This article documents Ashley's experience of fat-shaming in maternity care. RADIANT Chief Investigator, Dr Bec Jenkinson was also interviewed by 9Honey for this article.
