Has anyone ever worked out how many calories we burn up during labour?

[HeadFairy]

Not that that's uppermost in most women's mind when they're in labour

But surely it most burn up 1000s? All those muscles contracting, all that pushing? And just how much chocolate can I consume afterwards to offset the calories I will burn up giving birth?

I was told or read somewhere it is the equivalent of running a marathon - whatever that is .

cool, because with my knees I'm never going to be able to run a marathon

Well I weighed myself while in labor and after labor I had lost 2 stone but that included 8lbs 2oz baby placenta waters and so on So I would say at least half a stone so eat away.

oooh how many bars of chocolate = half a stone?

I weighed myself the day before my cs and ten days later and i'd lost 2.5 stone, so I figured that was all baby and water retention. Maybe I was wrong, though I don't remember sweating much during my cs!