The issue of pregnant women with eating disorders has perhaps never crossed the minds of many, but that’s exactly why Dr. Brenda Broussard considers her research to be extremely important.
During her presentation last Friday, she explained that this issue flies under the radar for a number of reasons, the main one being that people with eating disorders often struggle to find the right opportunity to discuss the problem with their doctors.
“If someone has had an eating disorder for a long time, they’re often waiting for someone to ask them about it,” she said.
many of the women in her study were relieved to finally be able to face their issues head-on and to have someone listening to what they had to say.
if mothers either don’t get the chance or simply choose not to discuss their eating disorders during the pregnancy screening process, then it’s likely that the issue will go unaddressed.
“Also, if it gives the impression that you’re doing something harmful to your baby, then you might not be willing to talk about it,” said Broussard.
she began looking into this issue after receiving her bachelor’s degree at the University of Washington and got a job at Swedish Medical Center. she already knew a great deal about eating disorders at the time and was working primarily in labor and delivery at Swedish. Naturally, she decided to combine the two areas of study and attempted to obtain a research grant from the National Institute of Health. unfortunately, she claims to have been rather rudely rejected by NIH and had to limit her early research to eating disorders alone.
it wasn’t until later that she was able to focus on what she believed to be a serious issue: the combination of pregnancy and eating disorders. she received a small research grant from the Seattle University College of Nursing and has already completed a good portion of her study.
During her early days at Swedish, she noticed that many pregnant women’s health records did not mention a history of eating disorders even if the women later admitted in the midst of postpartum depression that such a history did, in fact, exist. These findings indicate that the problem might rest in the screening process, and pregnant women with eating disorders either aren’t asked about it, are asked about it in such a way that they don’t feel comfortable bringing it up or are simply too embarrassed to discuss the matter.
Surprisingly, Bulimia Nervosa in particular is not a weight-loss issue. Therefore, if the problem isn’t addressed early on, then the physician might not notice peculiarities.
“They look their normal weight,” she said (of women with bulimia), “or even a bit ‘fluffier’ than usual.”
As of yet, her research is mainly focused on numbers snf how many of these women exhibit eating disorder symptoms, how many have been formally diagnosed, how many breast feed, how long they might refrain from their harmful behaviors during pregnancy. But she’s really interested in what can be done to better this situation.
to sum up her concerns, she said, “It looks to me like many women show symptoms of eating disorders and aren’t having their needs met during pregnancy.”
There were several nurses and nurse practitioners at the discussion and many of them agreed with Broussard’s points. it was mentioned that the effectiveness of the screening process has a lot to do with how the questions are asked. For example, a woman might not claim to be bulimic if she has never been formally diagnosed. It’s also something that needs to be asked about and then checked in on frequently.
much of the audience agreed that Broussard still has a lot of work to do. she has written an article on her earlier findings that is currently under review by a journal, but she plans to continue raising awareness as her body of work expands.
Cameron may be reached at