Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Professor Turner for his comprehensive presentation. He spoke about the inconsistent guidance nationally and internationally. Is that likely to be resolved and if so when will the information be given out? He said that the decrease over five years was more likely to occur in women who had children before, who were aged between 30 and 39 years, who were obese and who had been born in Ireland. I know we have an obesity problem but is there an increasing number of obese pregnant women? Does that arise more now than it did five or ten years ago? What percentage change has there been in that area?

In regard to social media I agree there has been no campaign on this issue.

Are there discussions on conducting a campaign and what is the timeframe for rolling out such a campaign? Would all the maternity units across the country and-or the GPs be involved in the rolling out of the campaign? The reason I am raising the issue of the involvement of the GPs, is that a person speaking at a recent GP meeting on obesity raised the issue of doctors discussing child obesity with the parents. They responded by saying "No". One GP gave the example of raising it and then the entire family moved from the practice.

How does one get a message across in a very diplomatic way? There are more than 2,500 GPs in the country and they have direct access to more people at an earlier stage of pregnancy than the maternity hospitals.