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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

Original poster

Stretch marks

73 replies

Swizzler · 12/07/2006 11:37

This may be a silly question, but when do stretch marks start to appear? None as yet (at 27w), but keep checking (and slapping on all those lotions that do no good at all).

OP posts:
teabags · 17/07/2006 20:06

I went 2 weeks over and didn't get any, (even though I got a few in adolescence)
fwiw, I slapped cocoa butter on morning, noon and night!

Dunnyjo · 18/07/2006 09:20

I got stretchmarks in the last few wks and they just appeared over night. They are awful my second pregnancy i would never have noticed if i got any new ones as my tummy is so bad. They are all over and up to my boobs! My mum never got any just me and my sister. She does not bother with them now as she has lost all her weight and is happy being slim than worrying about them. I however am devestaed by them but i will have to learn to live with them as you cant get rid of them Must be from my dads side of the family (i put on creams and oils all the way through)

DogMum · 18/07/2006 12:34

26 weeks and none above the belly-button (yet.) Anything could be going on lower down - I can't see anymore. I know I won't like it when/if they arrive, but hopefully I'll be the same as the vomiting early-stages - really excited about being pregnant even in the process of redecorating the loo.

emzickle · 18/07/2006 17:55

I've got them, my mum had 7 kids - not a line to be seen, yet I've got them on my hips and the tops of my legs...

That'll teach me for eating too much chocolate me thinks x

Mojomummy · 18/07/2006 18:23

zinc, Jason vitamin E oil, pure cocoa butter, keeping hydrated & calc flor. You've got to do your bit to avoid them.

I didn't get them first time - although the ones I had already - on the tops of my thighs, looked a bitred. This time I've put on a few pounds less, so haven't had problems YET !!

BTW My mum got them - she put on 4 stone

Psychobabble · 18/07/2006 21:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Gemmitygem · 19/07/2006 04:26

I'm 28 weeks and none yet; been massaging walnut oil twice a day (and the clarins oil, but when you think about it walnut oil is the same). 'no it's not, you smell like a steak' says my charming DH!

But it seems they appear later in 3rd trimester so won't be smug just yet!

earlgrey · 19/07/2006 06:17

I don't think you necessarily do. I've got them on my arms, from fat teenager days, but had none (and the midwife commented on the fact) during my pregnancy.

Probably a case of 'grown' room rather than 'growing room'

MadamePlatypus · 19/07/2006 21:16

I got some under bump ones in the last 3 weeks. I think you are either destined to get them or not (a bit like spots). They do fade, and I am even quite proud of mine now as I am proud of being a mum. (I have said this before, but I think if we were men we would be competing about who had the most stretchmarks)

gooseygosling · 20/07/2006 07:07

I got mine at 24 weeks - I'll never forget it and I am, quite literally, scarred for life. Even my GP murmured on the extraordinary number of stretch marks I had when she was examining me during my second pregnancy. Don't look that bad while preg - it's afterwards. I'm resigned to having a wrinkly, Frankenstinian stomach for the rest of my life, especially with the slight wrinkly flesh overhang over my c-section (I'm conjuring up a delightful picture aren't I?). I put loads of cream on and it made no difference. You're either destined to get them or you're not. My mum got them, I'm quite fair (I think that's sometimes a factor), I had huge babies (first one 11lb 2oz, second one 10lb) and only put on weight in the stomach area. Anyone else got stretchmarks in their pubes???
And ANOTHER thing...surely the law of averages should state that someone in the film/modelling/celebrity age should get stretch marks...what's that all about? Bitter? ME?

gooseygosling · 20/07/2006 07:10

P.S. Meggelvache - brilliant description. MY tummy looks like it's melted too. You should put me in touch with your sister and we can form some sort of support league and cry together over photographs of post-baby celebs displaying taut stretmarkless midriffs.

themadBelgian · 20/07/2006 14:36

Well, if it's genetic, how do you explain this...

I have quite a lot of stretchmarks on my thighs/hips from growing up and putting on weight too quickly when I was in my late teens and early twenties (all those croissants...). So I was obviously a bit stressed out about getting them on my belly too when I got pregnant. (In fact, looking back, that's probably the single thing I was most worried about - HA! little did I know )

So I started using the (v expensive) anti-stretchmark cream from the Active Birth Centre quite early on, then gave it up bcse I didn't like the smell of neroli that's in it, and just went on using cheaper lotions like Avent. But one morning I gasped in horror when I saw some blue-ish mark that had started to appear, so I reverted to the Active Birth Centre one, actually got to like the smell over the weeks, and did not get ONE stretch mark on my belly...

werewabbit · 20/07/2006 16:49

I really should have got them for my first pregnancy (got them as a teen and mum is riddled with them) but I managed to escape it - now I'm pregnant again and doing the same things so fingers crossed.

What seems to have worked was from as early in the pregnancy as you can, before you even show, is to drink lots of water and rub vitamin E oil on after every bath & shower, I get a bottle of baby oil, and top it up with vitamin e-oil and while I'm still wet I rub it everywhere then towel off. Makes the bathroom floor a bit slippy tho.

psychomum5 · 20/07/2006 17:06

Five pregnancies, no stretch marks, not one!!!!

Am the envy of all my friends.

All I used thro each one was body shops 'mama totos' body cream stick(smelt wonderfully like chocolate). They did discontinue it in one of my pregnancys to my horror but they still did cocoa body butter (same thing really and smelt like chocolate too!), and so used that.

Then it came back for my last two pregnancys. Not sure if it was using that so much (even the midwives commented on how smooth my tummy was and how wonderfully chocolaty I smelt too), or whether down to luck and good genes. I am thrilled tho.

Now the cellulite on my legs tho......

lou33 · 20/07/2006 17:17

4 kids no stretch marks

psychomum5 · 20/07/2006 17:19

lou33.....did you use anything tho????

lou33 · 20/07/2006 17:23

no

FioFio · 20/07/2006 17:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

psychomum5 · 20/07/2006 17:27

lucky cow. Maybe that means I spent a fortune on something that I needn't have then.....

I did smell nice tho, and completely satisfied any chocolate craving

megglevache · 20/07/2006 17:27

Message withdrawn

psychomum5 · 20/07/2006 17:29

fio......you are very lucky then.

I on the other hand gave birth to no.3 with her hand on her head and weighing 8lb.

Would never now have comments like THAT on my notes!

lou33 · 20/07/2006 17:29

my 3rd was 8lbs as well, 2 weeks early

megglevache · 20/07/2006 17:32

Message withdrawn

psychomum5 · 20/07/2006 17:34

All mine were, in order.....

DD1 8lb 8oz
DD2 8lb 10oz
DD3 8lb
DS1 7lb 2oz
DS2 7lb 14oz

bizarrely DS1 was the most painful tho, yet he was the smallestConfused

LittleB · 20/07/2006 19:11

I don't think its genetic, surely it depends how much you grow, how much weight you put on etc. My mum had lots, my poor sister had loads, I had one on my hip and several on the underneath of my breasts, none on my tummy. And I did get alot of stretch marks on my hips when I was a teenager and went through a growth spurt. i used mothercare stretchmark cream. I don't mind the ones underneath my breats and neither does dh as I've still got the bigger breasts that caused them !