The increasing obesity epidemic among women in Australia is putting a strain on some larger obstetric hospital staffs and forcing some smaller, suburban hospitals to refuse to admit pregnant women weighing more than about 265 pounds, the West Australian reports. Officials at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Western Australia said the hospital might be forced to create a specialized antenatal clinic for obese women, many of whom are in their early 20s. Janet Hornbuckle, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at King Edward, said the limit on obese and overweight admissions set by smaller hospitals has created added stress for King Edward, but that such a limit is fitting because of the greater possibility of complications and the increased lifting during an overweight or obese woman's labor.

Related Study
The Australian Medical Association has warned of a higher complication rate for pregnant women who are overweight or obese, following a study published in the Jan. 16 issue of the Medical Journal of Australia. Leonie Callaway and colleagues from Mater Hospital in Brisbane and Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane studied 14,200 pregnant women and found that more than 30% were overweight or obese. According to the study, a greater body mass index was associated with pregnant women who had longer hospital visits with increased rates of gestational diabetes, type 2 diabetes and chronic hypertension. Obesity in the pregnant women also was connected to higher admission rates to the intensive care nurseries, birth defects, prematurity and respiratory distress syndrome among their infants (Mckimmie, West Australian, 2/15).