I was taken aback by a recent New York Times Magazine article about pregnant women who are morbidly obese.

It is a ghastly image: up to 600-pound mothers-to-be in unprepared maternity wards. Beyond the demand for bigger scales, extra-wide operating tables and longer surgical instruments (obese women are twice as likely as normal-weight women to require Caesarian Sections), the situation is dangerous. Newly-minted “bariatric obstetricians” are desperately try to manage the risks: