WE are now so ridiculously PC about stating the obvious that doctors are discouraged from telling people they’re fat.

I really do understand that not everyone is responsible themselves for being overweight; there is often a valid medical reason. But, there are still a vast number of people in the obese category who actively contribute not only to their huge weight but also to maintaining it.

Now, Professor Lesley Regan, the new president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, has stated that doctors should stop shying away from telling women who want to have a baby that they should lose weight first.

Professor Regan said that young women often think a layer of “padding” will protect their unborn baby. But the reality is that being overweight not only makes it harder to get pregnant but puts obese women at higher risk of miscarriage or gestational diabetes.

And all that without taking into account the very worrying fact that the baby’s health will suffer, too.

Professor Regan believes that doctors have a role to play in “empowering women to lose weight and improve their own wellbeing and their child’s”, and that sounds like excellent advice for women trying to get pregnant and for going forward in their lives.

It’s a frightening fact that nearly 20% of pregnant women are overweight or obese. Many doctors, however, don’t want to offend their patients and shy away from the subject.

Just getting that message across to women would help their pregnancies considerably, and also help the next generations of young women to safer and better pregnancies.

I suppose it’s just part of the widely held myth that if we don’t use the F word it doesn’t apply. Unfortunately, everyone – including doctors – is tempted to skirt around it.

Like all the advice from our doctors, however, if we face situations head-on we have an excellent chance of aiding our health. Whereas if we don’t acknowledge as individuals that we are overweight and that this can damage our health – and our children’s health – we continue in the bad lifestyle habits that put us in a size 22 dress or XXL jumper in the first place.

Ignoring obesity is allowing too many people not to take responsibility for their own health, and that is something we cannot afford to do – either from a personal perspective or from the view of keeping our NHS still functioning.