I love how this is the common sense answer and it's the conclusion in the study as well.

But if you read the other comments here, you see people arguing about Roe v. Wade, racism, statistical errors, covid vaccines, etc.

When the whole time the answer is just right there, the hippo in the room if you will lol. Anything to avoid personal responsibility I guess.

10,000% this. Sedentary lifestyle with a poor diet and little to no regular exercise is a recipe for health complications throughout life.

> Anything to avoid personal responsibility I guess

Something can be caused by obesity without the primary “blame” being personal responsibility. If Americans are more obese than Scandinavians, is it because there just happen to be more individuals in the US who lack personal responsibility?

Societal problems are a result of societal sickness. We should aim at the root societal causes rather than attribute personal moral failings to the individuals who are a product of that society.

Basically every healthcare professional has been saying it out loud for decades. Its proxy, body mass index (BMI), is on every checklist and some city level political leaders have even been able to tax beverages with sugar.

The Obamas, and Michelle Obama specifically, addressed it directly (14 years ago):

https://letsmove.obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/

There’s also the ongoing closure of labor and delivery wards across the country, especially in rural America. There’s been an increase in retirements and burnout among experienced obgyn’s too.

But I guess none of the complicating factors make for as good of a straw man for the inane point you’d like to use these women’s suffering to prove.

Obesity, like Brexit, is a multiplier for the negative outcomes of complicating factors.

saying that we should only think of it when someone’s trying to talk about women’s health is misogyny

I do not remotely disagree, though I don't think people are saying we should "only think" of it then.

But a proper healthcare system should absolutely be discussing obesity with women who intend to get pregnant at least, just as it should be discussing it with people who want to have surgery requiring general anaesthesia, with people who have mobility issues or knee/hip problems, etc.; if not more generally even outside of the context of immediate interventions.

Because it makes difficult, traumatic and bad health situations worse. Giving birth is routinely the first two of those things.

There is a positive-discrimination aspect here, though: yes, obesity complicates the health of older people, is raising mortality rates across the board. But society doesn't want women to die in childbirth anymore, and that makes this targeted intervention re: obesity a proper thing to do.