to think that the NICE guidelines on obesity and pregnancy are just yet another way of pissing off pregnant women?

[PerfectDromedary]

I'm 9 weeks today, and trying to enjoy a first, very much longed-for pregnancy. But as far as I can work out, NICE is out to get me - and the 40% of pregnant women who are overweight/obese when they conceive.

Am I being unreasonable to think that the medical profession has just put on their judgy pants about yet another aspect of women's behaviour while pregnant? It seems highly unlikely that going on a diet while pregnant is a good idea - plus, if I don't have something in my stomach at all times, I'm quite likely to throw up...

(NB I may also be a little bit hormonal. But seriously, ffs.)

Pidgin I heard the same interview this morning, which did actually make me cry (like I said, hormones). I was quite amused by Humphreys, who seemed a bit shocked that anyone should be mean to the pregnant ladeez.

Morris Yes, it is I! Again, I think I phrased the OP a bit badly - NICE does a hard and thankless job. As Scorps, Muse and Headbanger have all said, it's the way that the meeja gleefully beat women with sticks any time that new recommendations come out that upsets people.

I'm not allowed my toast and a milky drink yet - being only 9 weeks and already the size of a small truck. Off for some rice cakes and water.

Well, I'm planning on TTC soon. After DD (13 months) my weight has crept up so I am getting close to the end of the "healthy weight" range.

I am now exercising and eating smaller portions to get my weight down to what it was when DD was conceived.

I don't particularly enjoy having to do it but it makes sense, makes me feel better, and pregnancy is such a strain on the body (I had a quite tough time with DD - lots of sickness, couldn't eat, it was a real physical slog for me) that surely its good to be as fit as you can before you start TTC.

It must be such hard work for 9 months to be obese and carry a baby on top of that.

Personally I think the guidelines are sensible; if 40% of pregant women are indeed over the BMI of 25 threshold, then we have got a problem, haven't we? [Can this figure really be right? It sounds like an awful lot of women.]

OH MY GOD! I know tone of voice is an issue on the interwebs but really...! Obviously - as I have now said several times - I don't think NICE is out to get me personally. I also don't think that there's a meeja conspiracy to make my pregnancy harder than anyone else's.

I was trying for a light-hearted tone. fail

I did point out that I knew some of this was hormonal, right?

Bumpsadaisie 40% of women are probably a size 16 or over, which would technically put them in the overweight category. BMI is a very blunt instrument with which to predict health.

Too late now kiddo.

Here, have some Asda fluorescent orange onion ring 'snacks'.

They never fail to cheer me up anyway

It is certainly true that media reporting of any health issue is often used to scare, criticise and otherwise undermine women.

I don't think the NICE man did anything other than report the clinical facts. That is his job. NICE's job is to look at research and provide information to HCPs and to women, based on the research.

Some parts of the media think it is their job to report all this with a finger-pointing tone that puts the onus for health firmly and squarely at the individual, as if the individual has 100 per cent control over (in this case) weight, and all that is needed is a bit of self-hate, self-discipline and backbone and all will be well. We know that's not true....but it seems perverse to rail at NICE for researching and then announcing the findings in the first place.

Without these findings, there is no evidence-based justification for looking at what clinical and public health measures can be put in place for reducing the incidence of overweight and obesity in pregnancy.

BMI is a tough one isn't it.

On one hand, I don't doubt that the research linking higher BMI with health problems is spot on.

But on the other hand, it's weird being told you're overweight when you've spent your whole adult life getting compliments on your fab figure.

I'm just inside the healthy range by the skin of my teeth, if I eat a wafer thin mint then I'll be officially 'overweight'.

And I'm a healthy, gym going size 14 blah blah blah etc etc.

Maybe it's just tough tits - being slim, curvy and enviably toned in the eyes of your friends isn't really enough if the scales and measuring tape say something else. I guess if a doc says I'm on the cusp of overweight then that is what I am.

and - what tiktok said.

I really am feeling way too delicate to be here today but I am gonna be brave and stick my head over the paripet.

I am 36 yrs old, 29 weeks pregnant, spent 6 years TTC, I also have a BMI of 30. I have had a BMI of between 29 and 34 for all my adult life, I have tried everything known to man, spent a fortune on fat camps and "specialists" in my attempts to get to a weight whereby the medical proffesion deemed it safe for me to become pregnant. I have not eaten a take away meal in 5 years, only eat out at friends whose menu I know I can influence. I walk 2 miles to work and 2 miles home again everyday as well as swimming twice a week.

so I suppose I am just selfish for wanting a baby even though I am fat.....

I was diagnosed with GD yesterday and cannot bare the guilt that I am feeling that my choosing to get PG even though I knew I was not in the "normal" BMI category may have health implications for my baby.

so thanks you all so much for judging...

and - what tiktok said.

Altinkum, are you deliberately refusing to read all the bits where the OP says she is being sarky about thinking the NICE guidelines are out to get her or are you just so eager to keep making your point that you're going to ignore what she has been really saying? You seem to have decided that Drom is saying that these guidelines and just keep addressing her thus, despite the fact that she and others keep pointing out that you're mistaken. She has NOT said that the guidelines were a big shock to her and she was being sarcastic about saying they are targetting her specifically - she is juat saying that it just feels like it's yet another thing to beat women up with, which it is. And neither is she expressing surprise that the media will use any tool to make women feel bad - she's annoyed about how they do that, not shocked.

I'll tell you what's 'rather hysterical' - banging on and on trying to make the same point, when that point clearly reveals you've not properly understood what the OP is actually trying to say.

Perhaps there needs to be some NICE guidelines for people who take every word they read literally and can't apply any level of perception or sense of humour to a bit of sarcasm and irony? Or maybe guidelines on basic spelling, grammar and punctuation? You clearly need all those.

OP, congratuations on your pregnancy.

I have avoided thinking about these things by refreshing myself on the guidelines at the beginning of this pregnancy, and then switching off.

I had a BMI of 22.5 at the beginning of this (my second) pregnancy, and will probably have put on four stone by the time I get to 40 weeks.

This happened last time as well, and there appears to be absolutey sod-all I can do about it.

May I suggest Stepping Away From The Media Outlets and having a nice lunch.

And anyone who jumps down the throats of pedants can piss off before you even start.

I was very very slightly overweight when I conceived mainly because I've always been a bit eating disordered (starving/binge eating, but never so far (touch wood) to medically extreme levels) and I think I subconciously let my portion control go when I was planning to get PG (i.e. "what's the point when I'm going to put weight on anyway). I was a healthy BMI of 24 when I began TTC.

Then when I got pregnant, I got worried that my binge-eating impulses would take over. I shared these with my midwife and doctor and they totally (and quite rudely) dismissed my concerns because they didn't want me "dieting" in my pregnancy.

Result? I put on 50% of my bodyweight. It's dropping off now 3 weeks after birth (I'm breastfeeding which helps), but it's still going to be hard to get back down to my pre-TTC weight. Frankly, apart from myself (and I blame myself all the time for my weight/food issues), I do blame my healthcare professionals, because they REFUSED to take my concerns seriously.

Surely, if you're overweight/obese, there is room to restrict your diet a little bit in pregnancy as long as what you are eating is nutritious and healthy?

And yes -- I do think the main effect of this advice will simply be to make the 40% of us who are overweight/obese when we get pregnant feel EVEN WORSE about ourselves and eat more chocolate cake.

I agree that the media reporting of this, and every other women's health/fertility issue is hysterical and totally unhelpful.

But just imagine that this was 1973 and it had just been announced that smoking was bad for women and babies and pregnant women should stop straight away. No doubt there would be loads of women saying 'oh it's easy for them to say but I am addicted, don't they know how hard it is to give up?' and 'I smoke 15 a day but also run 10 miles a day and am really healthy'. I think we are in the same culture, except that instead of smoking being endemic, today it is being over weight that is normal. It still doesn't make it healthy and women are not such precious, fragile things that we can't be told.

Carbonated, it's completely different to the smoking issue, because once you're pregnant, you're pregnant. If you're pregnant and smoking, you can stop smoking. If you're pregnant and overweight, they won't let you diet back down to the healthy weight range! And besides, you can't go cold turkey on eating.

I want to know the comparative risks of dieting while pregnant vs. being overweight and pregnant.

God this is making me feel depressed and fat.

Drom my dear, I had to pipe up again -

"PerfectDromedary - It's not about you. You may no well what works for you, you may well be right, well whoopy-fucking-doo just get on with it then.

If you are too selfish too put up with some nagging that will actually have a positive effect on some other people then that is quite sad. If you want personal health care, pay for it yourself."

Selfish and sad are 2 thing Drom is not. She made a reasonable comment about the media hype around this issue. No need to be rude, which frankly, that was.

excess wt is associated with maternal and fetal complications, increased CS, preeclampsia,gestational diabetes.NICE are write to bring this up.it is resonsible to discuss pregnnat women wt and risk/health implications

no one needs to eat for two,in 3rd trimester you need @200 extra calories only

Obviously there are differences. But isn't the advice on how much weight a woman should gain based on her pre pregnancy weight? One stone (or less, depending on how overweight she is) for overweight women, two stones for an average weight woman and three or more for someone who is overweight. No one is suggesting that pregnant women should be losing weight, only that they should (if necessary) eat healthily and moderately to gain an appropriate amount.

FWIW I was slightly underweight (BMI 18) when pregnant with DS1 and I was told in no uncertain terms that I needed to gain plenty of weight to have a healthy baby. I eat like a horse and could easily have got offended with that advice, but the statistics show that it is good advice and I took it.

Drom, I''ve said it before and I'll say it again, you in no way look overweight. And compared to some pregnant women you see wandering around, there's no contest (not that there's a contest). And they can't all be teetering on the verge of death can they? A walk down your average high street will show you that (apart from in certain areas of posh London). NICE put the info out there so they can't be accused of not doing so and there are degrees in everything, everything in moderation and all that. Women come in all shapes and sizes - some tosspot doctor told me once to stop dieting as I was underweight. I put him right in no uncertain terms. I think you're feeling pretty raw and fragile after the rollercoaster you've been on - take care of yourself and a healthy baby will hopefully follow.

I'm wittering. I'll stop.

beanlet, if your excess weight (your in a general sense not yours personally!) is the result of poor eating habits, then yes, you absolutely are allowed to 'diet' in pregnancy.

You just eat the recommended varied healthy diet and stick roughly to the calorie recommendations - for many people this will be lower then what they were eating pre-pg, myself included.

My own diet isn't always the best, but now I'm pg I'm trying a wee bit harder. I'm not 'on a diet', but if I've swapped a takeaway for a healthy home cooked meal as per the recs then I will be eating fewer calories. They absolutely do let you do this.

...like, if you have a three times a week KFC habit then no doctor in the land is saying 'you'd better keep eating that then as you can't diet in pegnancy'.

They want you to stop eating the KFC and start eating a varied, fresh diet.