Mothers as smoking guns: Fetal overnutrition and the reproduction of obesity

Abstract

Mothers are expected to monitor their children's dietary intakes and physical activities and are blamed for over feeding their children if they are obese. Women are also urged to manage their own weight in preparation for conception and during pregnancy in order to reduce complications associated with maternal obesity at childbirth. Through a theoretical lens of maternal blame, we argue that Australian media representations of scientific studies of the fetal overnutrition hypothesis extend behavioural maternal blame to the interiority of women's bodies. Women's intrauterine environments are positioned in the media as central to the intergenerational transmission of obesity, with women portrayed as responsible for passing obesity on to their children (and grandchildren) via biology and ill-informed 'lifestyle choices'. Linking in with historical and contemporary discourses of maternal bodies and individual responsibility, the implications of the 'double damage' caused by women entails a concerning return to essentialism in which women's bodies are being largely blamed for producing and reproducing obesity across generations.

Public health surveillance and the media: a dyad of panoptic and synoptic social control

“…In cases of pregnant women suffering from obesity, the media highlight the risks these women pose to their children (Keenan & Stapleton, 2010), suggesting that they may be programming their children for lives of poor health and obesity (Warin, Zivkovic, Moore, & Davies, 2012). This is consistent with the suggestion that the media commonly focus on child safety and that children provide the most effective victim portrayals (Seale, 2003).…”

Mothers’ strategies to strengthen their daughters’ body image

“…Second, other variables, such as the mothers' own relationship with their bodies, or the degree in which their children are perceived to be ''fat'' may also influence their ability to employ protective factors. Studies suggest that mothers are socially blamed for their children's ''obesity'' twice: biologically and socially (Harrison, 2012;Nash, 2012;Warin, Zivkovic, Moore, & Davies 2012). As the parent responsible for their children's nutrition, mothers of children deemed as fat are assumed to over-indulge them with food.…”

The Barker hypothesis and obesity: Connections for transdisciplinarity and social justice

“…Barker the man has been the object of much criticism, perhaps for a personal tendency to make 'sweeping statements' that do not seem in agreement with the hypothesis such as 'a woman is merely the arena for miracles over which she has no control' (Hall, 2007, Paragraph 15). Warin et al's (2011, p. 458) look at the genealogy of the hypothesis shows that it has been absorbed within the behavioural model, as recent DOHaD research has shifted the focus from social determinants to 'the interior of women's bodies', framing women as responsible for the 'transmission' of obesity through generations (Warin et al, 2012). Likewise, the need for engagement is urgent, as some social scientific knowledge is being swept into the war on obesity.…”