A new study of weight stigma before, during, and after pregnancy reminds us it is at once both a social and a personal problem. It comes at a woman from media, the workplace, and from family. But then she internalizes it and it leaves her “feeling fat” and less worthy of respect.

Obesity medicine physician Beverly Tchang sums it up sharply:

“A five-country study (Australia, UK, US, Singapore, Philippines) confirms what women already know:
👉 Society judges our body size no matter what we do.
👉 And we internalize it no matter what society says.

“This becomes even more painful in the peri-pregnancy time when we are literally sacrificing our health, time, and life.”

Diverse Cultures, Similar Patterns

The authors of this study probed the experiences of women before conception, during pregnancy, and after childbirth. They found the experiences of weight stigma have a close link to weight-bias internalization – the process of absorbing society’s negative stereotypes and turning them inward. Across reproductive stages, stigma was associated with “feeling fat” and with lower self-esteem, suggesting that the social environment surrounding pregnancy and motherhood can shape how women see themselves at a profoundly vulnerable time.

This matters because the perinatal period already brings enormous physical and emotional challenges. Evidence from related studies shows that weight-related discrimination during pregnancy and postpartum is associated with greater depressive symptoms, excess gestational weight gain, and weight retention after birth.

In other words, stigma does not simply hurt feelings – it can shape health for mothers for some time to come.

Stigma of Visible Diseases

A fascinating perspective from The Lancet Global Health helps explain why. Scholars studying the stigma attached to visible diseases – such as rare conditions or disfiguring infections – note that visibility invites public judgment. When a condition can be seen, people often attach moral meaning to it, leading to marginalization, discrimination, and barriers to care.

Pregnancy puts the body on public display, and adiposity is among the most visible traits we carry. That visibility can turn normal physiologic changes into targets for commentary, blame, and social surveillance. The result is a perfect storm. Public stigma becomes private self-doubt.

The Challenge of Stigma

The lesson from global health is clear. When stigma surrounds a visible condition, addressing the biology alone is not enough.

For maternal health – and for obesity care more broadly – we must also treat the social disease of stigma. Because when stigma becomes internalized, it is no longer just something society does to people. It becomes something people turn inward on themselves.

Click here for the five-country study of weight stigma and pregnancy, here for the commentary on stigma in visible diseases.

Sien Pregnant, Walking with an Older Woman, painting by Vincent van Gogh / WikiArt