Nurse told me I've gained too much weight - views please!

[leobear]

I am 32 + 2 with second, and have gained appro 1.5 stone so far, gone from 9.5 to 11. Nurse said to watch it, am potentially gaining too much!! Sure this is not the case. Am sure I gained about 2.5 with DD1, most of it came out in water in few days after birth!

[windsurf74]

I'm 37 weeks and have gained 2 stone..pretty sure I'd gained the same as you by 32 weeks...

it's strange though - I've never been weighed by mw or nurse. Or did you ask?

[BillyBollyBandy]

How odd! That sounds perfect. I put on 3stone both times but no one weighed me after 16 weeks.

[ShowOfBloodyStumps]

I didn't think they weighed you anymore. Unless there's a medical need. With dd and ds, I was weighed at booking in just to get an overall snapshot of health and then they don't bother at all after that.

[leobear]

I am 5'4"
It was my 31 week GP appointment (a week late), nurse saw me first and did BP, urine, flu and whopping cough and then weighed me.

[ShowOfBloodyStumps]

Oh and I put on about 4.5 stones both times despite carrying on cycling/running throughout and eating extremely healthily. I was still really quite fit at the end of my pregnancy with ds in particular and by the time he was 5 months old, it had all gone again. Was mostly water both times. Bump halved in size when my waters broke second time round. Stomach was measuring ridiculously big and people were predicting a monster bab. DS was 6lbs 13oz.

What I'm trying to say is that I had NO control over how much weight I put on.

[pjd]

I put on 3 stone in both my pregnancies, and lost it by 4 months after each birth. I went from 9 stone to 12 stone each time. 1.5 stone at 32 weeks definitely doesn't sound too much to me, but 32 weeks, I'm fairly sure I had put on 2 stone by around that time. I don't think you have anything to worry about, unless there is some other medical condition.

[Flisspaps]

Sounds bang on.

AFAIK routine weighing isn't done any more. I wonder how she can tell what's baby, fluid, blood, placenta and essential fat stores that all PG women put down, and what is cake retention?

I wasn't weighed at all with DS. I told the MW at my booking in appt how much I weighed, and that was that.

[Ghoulelocks]

I've gone from 9.7 to 11.3 at 30 weeks (I'm 5'9), it's not textbook but I look and feel good. Last time I gained 4.5st and lost it with ease. If you are eating sensibly don't worry.

[stowsettler]

I'm heading slowly but steadily towards a total minimum 3st gain. Put on about a stone in first 12 weeks due to ravenous hunger. Almost up to another stone on now and 24+2. I am ITCHING to get back to the gym and get breathless, sweaty and tired and I'm determined not to let the weight gain bother me - if I have anything to do with it it'll be gone in 6 months max afterwards.
It's not all bump either, I can see / feel it on my legs and my arse. I don't care - I lost it all in 3 months before, I can do it again.

[iliketea]

Is it not a bit difficult at that point to work out how much weight is too much? I had put on about that much by then (and I was much heavier than you). Total in pregnancy was just under 2 stone, but a week after birth, I was 7lb lighter than I had been pre-pregnancy. So clearly all the extra weight was pregnancy (baby, placenta, extra fluid) related.

[Midgetm]

What nonsense. Sounds bang on to me.

[Rockchick1984]

That's not too much unless you were fairly overweight to begin with, or at high risk of weight related complications eg gestational diabetes. I'd be querying it further to be honest.

[dinkystinky]

Erm I gained 3 and a half stone first time round, 3 stone second time round - no one ever told me I'd gained too much weight!

[halloweeneyqueeney]

I think more should pipe up about this

I'm 30ish weeks and have gained the same, when I voiced my concerns to my MW she brushed it off, there is a terrible culture in this country of normalising excessive weight gain in pregnancy and I wanted some support from my HCPs about controlling it

in the uk the guide is that you gain 2 stone IN TOTAL (most being in the last few weeks) and I'm already nearly there with still a couple of months to go.... However IMO that's still over generous as in other countries its more like 1 stone

I gained 4 overall last time.. it made labour shitty, it made looking after a newborn stilly, it made recovering from emcs shitty, NOBODY commented on my weight gain during that pregnancy and I bloody wish they had, its their job surely!

I am angry at being brushed off about my concerns of going down the same road again this time

you need to be fit and healthy for labour and life with a newborn, but my sodding MW treated my like I was just being vein by being worried about it!

OP, do keep an eye on it, it really does make things harder if you gain too much!

[BillyBollyBandy]

But if you are eating well, exercising well, blood pressure okay etc and you are putting on 3 stone what should you do? Eat less, exercise more? I wouldn't advocate that in pregnancy.

If 4 stone was too much for you, and you ate curry every night with a selection box as a snack, then yes it was excessive weight gain.

If you put on 4 stone and ate normally and were healthy throughout then so be it It will come off afterwards.

[halloweeneyqueeney]

I'm not imminently worried about it "comming off" billy, that implies again that its a vanity thing, it's not! It's not me concerned about ending up with "baby weight"

I don't care who you are but fast excessive weight gain above your norm is going to put pressure on your frame and make things, say, like, labour! or lugging around a newborn, more difficult

there is a culture of telling pregnant women to rest and put their feet up and EAT in England and that is the worst thing you can do to prepare for an optimal labour (unless on medical bedrest of course)

[Midgetm]

I had out on that much by then and only put on 2 in total. 1 week post delivery I have 10lbs to be back to my Pre birth weight. It is not too much. It could be gone in a month. Honestly I don't think it is too much at all unless you were medically obese to start off with.

[leobear]

But, halloweeney, the reason I am questioning it: I've gained 1.5 stone at 32.5 weeks, so say I gain 1 lb a week from now until the end, that will still take me only to 2 stone. From last time around, I remember automatically losing about 1.5 stone (baby, placenta, and then shed loads of water), and surely the rest is fat stores for feeding??

[halloweeneyqueeney]

you gain the most in the last couple of months, so by my estimation, 1.5 stone now is heading for well over 2 stone by the end.

I question the 2 stone TBH, when in most of the world it seems to be more like 1

I just wish someone had pointed me in the right direction first time round is all. At least I'm aware this time which I wasn't last time, I just thought "you gain weight in pregnancy" but noone informed me of a sensible range. This time it is just annoying when people tell me I'm "fine" when I know I've gained too much. I think its wrong of my HCPs to brush it off, I think they should be more like yours!

[BillysBeastlyBogeyman]

Sorry I didn't mean that Halloweeney, I just meant that if your body is acting naturally by gaining weight (not that someone is overeating) I don't see what you can do to stop it.

Generally fast weight gain would be due to excess fluid I think, so that would naturally disperse fairly quickly after birth usually.

I agree that eating and doing bugger all is dreadful advice.

[cheeseandmushroomghostie]

I am 14 weeks and have Gained a stone already. All I can stomach to eat is bread, bread and bread. Sometimes pizza. And weetabix. Dread to think how much more I will gain. Last time I think I gained about two stone and having given birth was lighter than I was before I conceived....

[halloweeneyqueeney]

by fast I mean an excessive 2 stone (totalling 4) over 9 months, not just the water at the end

IMO the 2stone thing was prob originally intended as a guide to what should be MAXIMUM, but now it seems to be considered more AVERAGE or middling amt of weight gain

its easy to bimble along thinking you're being healthy enough till sometimes a 3rd party points out that some things you are doing aren't great, and often its not the things you think.

I work with HCPs and they tell me off for "dieting" when I eat nut butter on ryvita. I like nut butter, it's actually high in cals but also high in protein and I go off a lot of my normal protein sources in pregnancy so I have to make a conscious effort to make sure i have the types I still like (like nut butter) otherwise it's all carbs, but because it's on ryvita (which I also like and is easy to take to work) I'm being vein and starving my baby . I also get told off for not accepting every piece of cake or sweets that are always being passed around at work. But with already low energy, if I have sugar highs I'll crash a couple of hours later and be useless. But apparently you're "allowed" to not worry about what you eat when you're pregnant (surely it should be the time when you are most conscious of what you put in your body???)

• my MW is of the same mindset, as I guess my previous one must have been (since she never commented at all so I thought I was doing fine)

[BillysBeastlyBogeyman]

So did you overeat and that was why you put on 4 stone?

If you didn't and ate healthily and exercised then what could you have done differently to avoid the weight gain?

[halloweeneyqueeney]

well yes but it wasn't burgers and chips and cokacola, I just ate a bit more blandly therefore more stodgily

plus I didn't understand what physical things were safe, I gave up exercise that didn't have antenatal before it and didn't do ANYTHING physical at work, I went from hard core exercise to only doing "gentle" stuff

but my point is noone corrected me or pointed out that I was going wrong somewhere, I was weighed at my appointments but as nothing was ever said I thought I was doing fine