Body Image & Weight Gain During Pregnancy

takes one for the team. During pregnancy, your body changes in ways that you almost certainly expected, those bigger boobs, that swelling belly, and in ways you almost certainly didn't. There's nothing more beautiful than a body devoted to the growing of a new human life. Every change your body undergoes, those pounds you add happens for a reason. Wondering how to embrace your new curves, the ones you're acquiring or already acquired, but hoping to stay on the healthiest curve

when it comes to your weight gain. Today, we're getting real about your changing body, what's just temporary, what's for keeps, and what you can do to keep yourself and your pregnancy healthy as you and baby grow. I'm here with Emma, Hey, Emma, hey, mom. So it's been a minute since you were pregnant. It's been it's longer minute since you've been pregnant. I still feel the effects of my pregnancy. Yea, So we're gonna talk about how we felt about our pregnant bodies. You first,

I actually really liked my pregnant body. I think that you know that first few months, I was a little little anxious, like when I had just gained a little bit of weight. I started to show pretty early, so it's like that in between are you or aren't you kind of situation, And then my boobs got really big and they were already they were the perkiest they've ever been. I don't know. I felt sexy when I was pregnant, especially the second time, because my husband made me feel sexy.

But I think there's nothing more beautiful than a pregnant body. I totally agree. I loved my pregnant body so much. From what I can remember, I loved my belly. I love my boobs. My only regret was that I didn't get to show any of it off. You have the chance to wear all those cute maternity clothes. I had those maternity jeans and they had an elastic panel like up to your boobs, and they were so short, I mean the ham on the bottom, it was so so ugly.

And then I only have what two polaroids of my pregnancy because because we didn't have a camera, there's no photo graphic evidence. Your belly was something that you couldn't show off naked back then. That's so sad, that's so I love wearing a bikini when I'm pregnant. Just let it all hang out. I mean, I wish I could do it all over again. So the best parts for you about your pregnant body, boobs or my boobs. And I had a little bit of butt for the first

time in my life, the curves. I felt sexy, obviously, like my nose got a little water and I got the acne. But besides that, I was loving it. And Simon was loving it too. Yeah, I mean honestly, like you're softer when you're pregnant, you look softer. I was living my best life and I was pregnant. I feel like I felt the prettiest when I was pregnant. How did you feel about your body after? Well? With my first I was in my twenties and I was like, oh cool, I'm just gonna bounce back, and that's not

how it happened. Actually, I remember being on the floor of the Victoria's Secret Pink dressing room like crying because I couldn't fit into sweatpants. I remember that I was with you, Yeah, you are with me, And then I got like a belly bandit and that really helped me feel better, help my posture a lot. I think that you know it takes nine months to grow a baby, give yourself at least nine months. I think you say this to lose it. And personally, I don't look the

same as I did before I had a baby. I don't. I'm never gonna look the same. My boobs are certainly not going to look the same. You get a baby, you give you a few other things. For me, the scariest part were the boobs because when my milk came in, I think it was like four four days postpartum, and it was very dramatic and it was like the boobs at eight Manhattan exactly. Yeah, they were, so I can't. I remember like going into the bathroom of my room at the hospital and I've lifted up my down and

I was like, holy crop, So what do you struggle with? Still? Though, if anything, I struggle sometimes looking in the mirror with my boobs. And you know, I definitely got a lot of cellulite when I was pregnant and that stayed around and that's okay. I'm learning to embrace it. And the thing is this on Instagram, there's this thing that people are doing where they're putting like glitter on their stretch marks on their stomach, and I think it's so beautiful

or like creating art with it. I think that embracing your mom stripes is such a beautiful thing. It definitely is. Absolutely. Let's take a quick break, and when we come back, I'm answering the biggest questions you have about weight gain and body image during pregnancy. Okay, mom, so let's get real about our bodies during end after pregnancy. Let's how much weight should a woman gain when they're pregnant. I

think I gained like thirty five fish. That sounds about right. Truthfully, the best person to answer that question is not me. The best person is your doctor midwife. So as soon in pregnancy as you possibly can, you need to ask for that magic number. And that magic number varies a lot from mom to mom. How many pounds you should plan on gaining is going to be based not just on general guidelines, but on your specific body, and everybody is different in case you haven't noticed. So that's it.

For the average weight woman, to thirty five pounds is usually considered the sweet spot, so that you definitely fit comfortably into that. I mean it might have been thirty seven, it might have I don't know. I stopped weighing at the end. So that's enough to nurture your baby and also to lay on some extra fat stores that you're actually going to need later on for breastfeeding. That's the padding on the arms and the butt and the thighs and all those womanly places that all of us are

gonna pack on. It's enough, but it's not so much that you're piling on extra risks with those extra pounds, and that can happen if you really exceed those weight gain recommendations. Now. Just as important as a total amount of pounds, though, is the rate you gain them at. So the goal the objective would begin gain maybe a handful of pounds in the first time master give or take, and then in the second and third timemesters about a

pound a week. But that's an average, So it could be half a pound one week, and a pound and a half the next week, and then three quarters of pounds. So as long as it averages out to about a pound a week, you don't have a thirty pound baby. Thank God. Yeah, hopefully right. So what is all that extra weight? Yeah, I would say seven pounds was of you. Was plenty of enough for me to push out. So you know all those pregnant women with the perfect bellies and they say, oh my god, you're all baby, but

that's not really true. Nobody's all baby because the baby is just about a quarter of a total weight game for an average wekenn. So the rest is extra fat, stores extra fluids. You've got to include about three pounds of retain water, two pounds of amniotic fluid, about four pounds of extra blood. And then you've got your supersized breasts, so they're going to add anywhere between one and three

pounds or ten or ten. Even your uterus adds about two pounds, and I'm not even talking about what's inside your uterus. Just your uterus itself grows by two pounds. And then the average placenta is about a pound and a half, so it all adds up, and it's supposed to just three pounds of water weight. Come on, I feel like I was way puffier than that, especially in

my cheeks. You know, you're supposed to retain water. Your body eats those extra fluid so it holds onto more of them, So when it's in your face and your feet, it might feel like more fluid than it actually is, and you might not think all that's swelling, so swell, but it's normal. I had a mom recently tell me that she felt like a cactus when she was pregnant

because she was prickly and retained water. There's just one important caveat make sure you check with your doctor if you suddenly have severe swelling, especially in your face or your hands and above above the knee, so that it's not just in your feet and your feet is more likely to be normal if you suddenly have excessive weighting, and this could happen in late and pregnancy or postpartum, and it could be a sign of a complication like pre eclampsia, So make sure you check in about that.

What if you have problems gaining weight, or what if you have a problem watching the numbers go up and you get stressed out when you do, maybe because you had an eating disorder in the past or something. And and even though you know it's the right thing for your body, seeing those numbers creeping up can give you anxiety. You know, this is such an important conversation to have and have it openly. So I'm really glad that we're

going to talk about it now. So many women, so many women have had some kind of disordered eating at one point or another in their lives. And many women have a really unhealthy relationship with their scale and with their eating habits and their body image. And it's easy to panic when you gain weight, but gaining the right amount of weight during pregnancy it's not only okay, it's necessary, it's vital. It's vital to your pregnancy health and to

your baby sealth. And for some moms, I would say it's best just to avoid the scale altogether, except for the monthly weigh ins that you get at your doctor midwife's office, and then for your sanity. For some moms, it's way better if the nerve just doesn't say the numbers out loud, like, just records them and doesn't say anything. Now, if you have an eating disorder or you've ever had an eating disorder and you feel like you're struggling again

once the weight starts piling on. Please please please talk to your doctor midwife and get a referral to a therapist or a nutritionist or both who can help you talk through those feelings so you can start feeling good about eating wealth for yourself and your pregnancy and your baby, and feel good about gaining weight. And it's so important. And here's where a healthy body image during pregnancy is

really key. No, you don't want to exceed the weight gain recommendations because that's not healthy, but you definitely don't want to fall short of them either, because that's not healthy. In fact, it's less healthy. This is the time to let go of weight gain phobia, to welcome the weight gain. So what can you do if you haven't gained any weight,

or you're not gaining enough off weight. If you need to start packing on the pounds, you need to eat more, and you don't have to eat more at each meal, because it's really hard to eat a lot when you're pregnant and it makes heartburn all those tummy troubles. So instead of trying to fit it all into two or three meals. You want to do the six meal solution and eat small amounts frequently and focus on high calorie foods that are also high in nutritions, so you know,

seeds and nuts and avocados. What if you gained a lot early on, like say, twenty pounds by the halfway point, should you slam on the brakes and try not to gain anymore? You know, that happens a lot, and it often happens to moms who well, either they're super hungry instead of super sick. Yeah, that's gonna go either way. Or they could be feeling sick and the only thing they're comforted by is ice cream, you know, and fries.

And that's understandable. That happens, and it can be something of a shock when you step on the scale and you're like, oh, no, crap, I just gained twenty pounds and I'm only you know, eighteen weeks. But you definitely shouldn't slam the brakes on your weight gain because the second half of your pregnancy is that's the prime growing time for your baby, and that means it's prime growing

time for you. So you've got a game weight you can't rely on the pounds you're already added for fueling that baby making production lines, so you're gonna have to keep adding them, just maybe a little bit more gradually. And the best thing to do is to talk to your doctor midwife and figure out a weight game plan for the rest of your pregnancy and to meet it. To focus on foods that pack the most nutrition for the fewest calories, so you know, veggies, fruits, lean protein,

little fat, dairy. The thing to remember is you shouldn't go fat free, because fat is essential for your pregnancy health. But to go lower fat if you're trying to limit the number of pounds you're gaining. And definitely fit fitness and all pregnant women should get, you know, unless they've been restricted in their activity. They should get thirty minutes of exercise a day, and you can definitely do more of that, even if it's just power walking or streaming.

I'm not a fitness kind of gal, so I power walked. Walking is a great exercise for pregnancy. Also it helps like with nausea, getting fresh air, so it definitely does. The ideal exercise actually for pregnancy is swimming. If you can get into water, it helps with all of those aches and pains and waits. It also helps with extra fluid retention. Okay, and I have to ask what about our boobs? When do they go back to normal after having a baby. Do they ever go back to normal?

I'm gonna go with no, Well, I guess would. It would depend on your definition of normal. Chances are really good you're not going to have exactly the same breast that you had going in before. When I would lay down, they didn't go to my sides and now they do. Yeah, that's that's one of the possible. Also, my nipples and now the size of texas, So there's that. So I would say you probably aren't even going to know exactly what you're going to end up with if your breastfeeding

until after you wean your baby. And I'm not gonna lie. Pregnancy can take a toll on the girls. There is a lot of growing going on. Often there are stretch marks involved, their changes in the color and the size of your ariola's and when it's all over, including breastfeeding, you might find yourself how do we put this deflated? That's normal wear and hair. And by the way, the

saggy is not caused by breastfeeding. It's caused by pregnancy. Again, your results may vary depending on genetics, how big your breasts were to begin with, how much support you provide them during pregnancy. But here's what we have to remember. Your breasts were born to do this. They rise to the occasion when they have to, and we should celebrate them and embrace them no matter what. And free the nipple. Free the nipple. Yes, Okay. What's the biggest surprise moms

have about their postpartum bods? Okay, so I I remember clearly looking down at my belly for the first time after delivery and being totally shocked that I still look pregnant. Right, I did not look that much different than when I checked into the hospital, And I think that is the biggest surprise for most moms. You know, the baby has left the building, the building still looks six months pregnant. Seven months pregnant, and you lose a lot of weight overnight.

You know, you lose about twelve pounds or so. That's significant, but it's not everything that you gain, not by a long shot. And the rest comes off over time, and it can take some time, and include it includes a whole lot of accumulated fluids that you're gonna lose over the months, And initially you might notice that you're a

lot puffier than you might have thought. Like you thought pregnancy puffy, postpartum not puffy, not so and you retain water after delivery, but especially if you had an epidural, because they pump you full of a lot of fluids during an epidural and later on. I think most moms are not prepared for the extra skin around their bellies. You may think, oh, I'm back to my weight and who is this? Don't sip up, it doesn't make any sense.

But one thing you should be on the lookout for is if you have a separation of your abdominal muscles. You'll notice a little kind of a pooch between your abdominal muscles, especially when you bend down to get something, and that's called the die stasis wrecked. I um, you don't need to know that. All you need to know is it's super common late in pregnancy and you might not notice it during pregnancy, but usually it happens then and it doesn't always heal on its own. So you

can do some really easy exercises. I have them in the book there on the website on the app to help you close the gap, and that can help you, you know, get back on the road to recovery for your ABS. And it's really important not to do any abdominal workouts until that gap has closed, because you can do more damage. Here's the thing we have to keep

in mind. It takes nine months for your body to change to gain that pregnancy weight, and it takes at least that long to lose the weight and also to get back to some kind of semblance of what you kind of sort of remember as normal. I mean, let's say that your body is never going to be exactly the same even after you lose all the weight. But we should all wear our mom bodies with pride. We earned the stretch marks, we earned the c section scars,

we earned the slack skin. That's why I love when moms share their unfiltered photos of their real post bartom bodies and embrace them for what they have achieved and not what others perceived. And we're never ever ever gonna let a mom be body shamed postpartum just not going to happen on our watch. The more we tell each other that, the more we're gonna be able to personally accept it. So let's keep the conversation going. It doesn't

matter what necessarily is happening on Instagram. You know, there's so much more to it. And you know, honestly, I see women on Instagram all the time who were pregnant with these tiny arms or or they just gave birth and they're like rocking a bikini and they look amazing. And yeah, I looked great after I had a baby, but not like that, and it's hard. You're like, wait, what, why isn't my body doing that too? So you know what, like, I get it. No, yourself, know what you can handle

after you give birth? No, like can I handle seeing people? Do I need a break? I want to end with a message I got on Facebook from a mom named I See You. She said, I love my body during pregnancy and I felt the most beautiful. Like if all my flaws I thought I had, then we're vanished. I had body issues when I was sin I thought it was chubby, but I looked back and I see that I was a stick. But now I've learned to love myself for what I have done and gone through to

have two wonderful kids. In this world. I just love that. Emma, how about you? I love that so much? Perfect ending Amen to that? Who baby love, my baby love. I need you, Oh how I need you. Thanks for listening. Remember I'm always here for you. What to Expect is always here for you. We're all in this together. For more on what you heard on today's episode, visit what to Expect dot com slash podcasts. You can also check out What to Expect when You're Expecting, What to Expect

the First Year, and the What to Expect app. And we want to hear from you. Connect with us on our community message board or on our social media. You can find me at Heidi Murkoff and Emma at Emma Being wt E and of course at What to Expect. Baby Love is performed by Riley Peterer. What to Expect is a production of I Heart Radio. From more shows from I Heart Radio, check out the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows

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