“She Didn’t Think Fat Women Deserved to Have Children”: Memorable Messages From Healthcare Providers in the Context of Fat Pregnancy

Abstract

Infertility is physically, emotionally, psychologically, financially, and socially challenging. For people in larger bodies, infertility challenges are intensified as providers often blame them for their inability to conceive or carry a pregnancy to term. Using a memorable messages framework, we examined messages that fat women (N = 69) with an infertility diagnosis received while trying to conceive, pregnant, and in the postpartum period. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we found three core messages that fat women received from providers: (a) body size is a primary reason for infertility, (b) weight loss will lead to a successful pregnancy, and (c) denial of care.

Keywords:

• Infertility
• fat bodies
• patient–practitioner communication
• memorable messages

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our research assistants, Ashley Lovett and Emanuela Likskendaj, for their help with this manuscript. We would also like to thank Dr. Heather Carmack at the Mayo Clinic for her expert feedback in cultivating our analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).