The RADIANT Study

"Women deserve respect and dignity when growing and birthing their baby, regardless of body size" ~ Dr Briony Hill, Investigator, Body Positive Birth

With the Centre for Research Excellence: Health in Preconception and Pregnancy, we are proud to announce the launch of a new alliance which aims to challenge weight-centric maternity care, and address both unconscious and conscious weight stigma and discrimination. The Body Positive Birth Alliance brings together a collective of consumers, clinicians, researchers, advocates and professional groups aiming to improve experiences of maternity care and health outcomes for larger bodied women and their children. According to Dr Briony Hill, member of the Alliance's Executive Team and Deputy Head of Monash University's Health and Social Care Unit, Reducing weight stigma and discrimination in maternity care is urgently required. This Alliance represents a small step in formalising our mission and plans to address this problem collectively - with the support of researchers, clinicians and women. The group will work to address national policies, research priorities and gaps between research and practice in this area.

Weight stigma is common in maternity care and is linked with poor pregnancy outcomes, including high blood pressure, mental illness, birth problems, lower breastfeeding rates, poorer long-term maternal and child health, and intergenerational stigma. It is also known to undermine weight management in pregnant women.

Said Alliance Executive Professor Leonie Callaway, "Weight stigma is profoundly harmful, and we must address this issue to improve the safety of maternity care. Together with consumers, our shared aim is to make maternity care free of weight stigma."

The Alliance's main goals for 2023 are to plan for and seek funding to get some key projects underway.