Challenging weight stigma in the reproductive years

RESEARCH PROFILE

Dr Briony Hill

Challenging weight stigma in the reproductive years

Dr Briony Hill, Research Fellow, Deputy Head of the Health and Social Care Unit, NHMRC Early Career Fellow and public health psychologist, is challenging how weight and lifestyle health are addressed in the reproductive years.

Dr Hill was awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Project Grant (2022-25) to explore stigma based on body size in women during preconception, pregnancy and postpartum. The ultimate goal of the project is to provide the impetus for policy change. Currently, policies can be implicitly stigmatising and don’t provide specific guidance on reducing stigma based on body size.

Traditional approaches to weight and lifestyle health for women focus on individual responsibility. Dr Hill’s new project tackles the issue from a social and environmental perspective, recognising the impacts of policy, the community and society and those around us on our health and wellbeing.

Dr Hill is working with a team of researchers, policy makers, students, and consumers with lived experience.

For more information: briony.hill@monash.edu