To the Editor:
Re “Growing
Obesity Increases Perils of Childbearing” (front page, June 6):
How sad and frightening that our health care system is willing to invest
in “longer surgical instruments, more sophisticated fetal testing
machines and bigger beds” and even bariatric surgery for the one in five
women who are obese when they become pregnant. These women do not
become obese overnight, but do so because of many years of poor eating
habits, limited fresh fruits and vegetables and little or no physical
activity.
With estimated costs of more than $200,000 to deliver and care for just
the one obese mother featured in the article and her baby, how can our
health care system not be paying for preventive services long before
these women become both obese and pregnant? Nutritionists, health and
wellness coaches, personal trainers and the like must be used to their
fullest potential in our health care system if we are ever going to make
an impact on the raging obesity epidemic in this country.
Particularly, with regard to women of childbearing years, millions of
dollars could be saved if we called upon the services of the allied
health professionals and helped women to eat right and exercise before
it is too late.
Susan P. Helmrich
Berkeley, Calif., June 8, 2010
The writer, an epidemiologist, is a health and wellness coach.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 