Stab. Rant. WLS Caused My Premature Birth.

-Mirror UK

This kind of article may be why I throw things at my computer at 7am.

"The mum was unaware she was four weeks pregnant when she had gastric bypass surgery to reduce her 18-stone frame.

Her weight plummeted by half in four months and her malnourished daughter Juli was born 15 weeks premature, weighing only 1.9lbs.

The baby was too weak to survive and doctors turned off her life support two days later.

Yesterday distraught Holly, who is now under nine stone and a dress size 8, spoke about her heart-breaking ordeal and called on all women who have gastric surgery to get a pregnancy test beforehand.

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/09/23/i-had-slimming-surgery-and-it-killed-my-baby-115875-23439471/#ixzz1Ym11w3jH 

Yes.  I understand it's from the UK tabloid  "The Mirror."

Yet this is a published piece which hits the demographic for those seeking weight loss surgery and the Google Alerts for all things Weight Loss Surgery.  

Which is why it still makes it to me -- at 7am.

The unborn baby astonishingly survived when surgeons at Charing Cross hospital, London, divided Holly’s stomach in two.

After six weeks, recruitment consultant Holly became concerned when she was still unable to eat anything properly and kept being sick.

She had already lost three stone by the time she went to hospital for tests and doctors discovered she was 10 weeks pregnant.

They warned that she was not taking in the vital nutrients for the growth of a healthy baby but she was too weak for the operation to be reversed. Holly spent the next few months in and out of hospital and her weight continued to plunge until she lost nine stone.

Following a difficult labour, Holly gave birth at 25 weeks in May but starved Juli was too fragile to survive.

Grieving Holly, of Uxbridge, Middlesex, has been unable to talk about her loss until now.

Obesity expert Dr Ian Campbell said: “It is imperative to ensure someone is not pregnant before this procedure. But I can see why people can slip through the net.

“The reason this child might have suffered from malnutrition is the diet after having a gastric band fitted is very low calorie.”

Imperial College Healthcare NHS, which runs Charing Cross Hospital, said patients who have a gastric bypass should avoid pregnancy for two years. A spokesman added: “This is to minimize complications such as maternal malnutrition, miscarriage and premature, or underweight, birth.”

Assuming it's actually true:  this woman was likely paid for her story of a premature birth following weight loss surgery -- but the article mentions a gastric bypass and a gastric band.  It is a devastating scenario -- woman undergoes weight loss surgery and is very newly pregnant?  

This is surely something to concerned about -- but -- really?   How was she not tested?  Any woman of childbearing age - it's the FIRST THING DONE IN THE HOSPITAL (at least in my limited experiences in the US) for ANY COMPLAINT.

I walk in to a ER - "Hello, my eyeball is hanging out!  I just had a seizure!  My gut is broken!"

"Could you be pregnant?"  

"No."

"Would you please give us a urine sample anyway?"

How does one have abdominal surgery without a pregnancy test?  Okay.  I'm over it.  I'm just angry at this article and it's silly because it's a tabloid and stupid and wrong and made to make you go "GIRL?!  WTF?!"  and it worked.  

Stupid tabloid.  

WLS does not cause preemies.  Not typically.  Get your self tested FIRST.  Do NOT have WLS if you are pregnant and do NOT get pregnant after your weight loss surgery procedure until you are cleared by your surgeon and the President of the United States.  KTHANXBAI.