Milkbank Blog
Pregnancy Weight Gain
When I got pregnant I was probably around 25lbs overweight. I lost 4lbs in weeks 5 - 8 and now, at 20 weeks pregnant, I am 6lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight (for a total of 10lbs gained). Which I thought was pretty damn good. Until last Thursday. On Thursday the midwife told me I should either be maintaining my pre-pregnancy weight or even LOSING weight. What do y’all think of that?
After she did the whole “oooh ok then” thing after I told her my current weight I asked her what she thought was acceptable weight gain for pregnancy. She said 20 - 40lbs, but that was for people who were of average weight before they got pregnant - not for people who were overweight like I was. Overweight people should maintain (or can even lose) weight during pregnancy.
But this information goes against everything else I have read. One of the many sources I found on-line include the Mayo clinic which advises that women considered overweight when they get pregnant should gain 15 - 25lbs, which given that I am 10lbs up at the halfway point means that I’m right on track. Also almost every single site I came across had an explicit warning that dieting or trying to lose weight in pregnancy could be harmful to the baby and there are no thin thighs or flat stomachs in the world that would make me want to do anything that could hurt the baby.
I understand the risks for overweight and obese women can be higher for gestational diabetes, high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia but I can’t help but think that guilting me into maintaining or losing weight puts me at a different kind of risk.
But what do you think? Am I just being overly sensitive about my weight? Are we generally so much larger that the attitudes towards pregnancy and weight gain need to change to take our ever expanding waistlines into consideration? Should I be worried?
One Comment to “Pregnancy Weight Gain”
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I think she smoked something before you showed up, sure some women do not gain a lot when pregnant, like one of my friends, but, the doctors were concerned about it, so a little scarey… is she THE midwife or do you have a back up not so nutsy one?