- 30 per cent of women pregnant last year in Jersey were overweight or obese
- Hospital staff getting RSI from added difficulty of scanning through layers of fat
- Consultant says Jerseys population is getting heavier
- Comment: Read what the JEP thinks
- Do you think chocolate should be banned from supermarket tills? Take part in our poll
ALMOST 30 per cent of women who were pregnant last year in Jersey were overweight or obese, a problem with implications for the mother, her unborn child and Hospital staff, says a consultant gynaecologist.
And he added that sonographers were getting repetitive strain injury through scanning overweight or obese women.
RSI in sonographers can occur from having to press hard on the stomachs of overweight women, and manoeuvring the machine so that they are able to see the baby.
The Hospital is equipped to operate and treat patients who are overweight or obese, including a bariatric-sized bed for surgery, which Dr MacLachlan said was put in place because his department saw the most people who had an unhealthy BMI.
Dr MacLachlan said that problems not only occurred during pregnancy and birth, but children were more likely to be obese or get diabetes later in life if their mother was overweight during pregnancy.
‘You start off life disadvantaged.
He added that diabetes and Islanders who are overweight were a ‘massive’ drain on the health budget.
‘Diabetes in Jersey is very high and the diabetic service is swamped with referrals,’ Dr MacLachlan said.
‘There is nothing beneficial to being overweight.’
According to a Danish study, pregnant women who have a BMI of 30 or more are almost ten times more likely to get a blood clot compared to women with a healthy BMI.
‘Overweight women are also twice as likely to need a caesarean or emergency caesarean and three times more likely for shoulder dystocia – where the baby’s shoulders get stuck inside their body – to occur during birth.
Dr MacLachlan said that many women in Jersey were usually in their thirties before starting a family.
He said that problems arise in overweight or obese women aged between 35 and 40 because they have ‘no time’ to lose weight due to declining fertility.
However, he said: ‘The impact on their health and the baby’s health is massive if a mother decides to pursue fertility treatment.’
Dr MacLachlan said the whole of society needs to tackle the issue of obesity.
He said: ‘It has got to come from schools and parents but the whole of society is responsible.
‘Get rid of chocolates at the checkout and put bananas there instead. Schools need to increase exercise time.’
The consultant said that he believed there should be an incentive for people to keep themselves ‘fit and well’.
And he said that Islanders who smoked, drank or were overweight should pay a higher rate of tax.
‘If you are overweight you are more likely to use the health service,’ he added.
‘Should you pay more if you smoke, drink or are overweight?
‘Should there be an incentive to keep your self fit and well? I would prefer to see that system. We have got to be thinking like that.’
SMOKING has become public health enemy number one. We all know that lighting up is bad for us, but wind the clock back a few decades and that message was far from understood.
Today, obesity, and the health problems which stem from it, is a very serious threat to the health of our Island.
Some of the effects of poor diet and a lack of adequate exercise are revealed by Dr Neil MacLachlan – whose comments blow out of the water the argument that what you eat is a personal lifestyle choice and no one else’s business.
Not only are children more likely to be obese or get diabetes later in life if their mother was overweight during pregnancy, but Hospital antenatal staff are suffering from RSI because of having to check these women.
Across the Island’s health services, extra training and new equipment has had to be bought to address this growing problem.
We already know some of the journey that lies ahead – we have been through it all before with tobacco products. Health warnings on cigarette packets and effective public health campaigns have driven the message home. Here in Jersey, is it time to demand that food packaging is clearly labelled about its salt and sugar content?
‘You start off life disadvantaged,’ Mr MacLachlan says of children born to obese parents. ‘It is difficult for parents to control their children who develop a taste for it.’
He added that diabetes and Islanders who are overweight were a ‘massive’ drain on the drain on the health budget.
Education and Health are already taking a lead on tackling this issue, and it may not be long before the Treasury starts looking at some sort of extra levy on healthy food.
But whatever the government involvement, this major public health problem will only be solved by changes in personal choice. The question is how many of our children are we going to disadvantage before the message hits home?
