Weight gain optional?!?!!

[aikigypsy]

So, I went in for my 16-week checkup today, and the midwife was so weird. At the moment I'm at a big hospital and see a different one every time. Anyway, I told this one I was a bit concerned about weight gain since I keep hearing totally contradictory things.

Well, she went ahead and topped them all. She said that she just barely regained her pre-pregnancy weight (presumably after morning sickness) and that both of her kids were fine and healthy. She went on to say that kids born durring famine have no particular health problems to speak of, and that maternal mortality rates in undernourished populations are very low.

This is such a crock. I mean, I googled all this stuff after I got back to my office and y'know what? Low maternal weight gain leads to low birth weight which is associated with a whole raft of problems. I'm sure that most babies survive well enough under these circumstances, but it can't be good for them to be undernourished.

Have any of you heard of such a thing? I am just totally appalled. Then again, maybe she's just jealous because I've gained an absolutely average amount of weight for this point in my pregnancy. I don't know. This only scratches the surface of the weird things she said. I just don't get it.

Have you gained a small amount of weight, could she have been trying to make you feel better?

I have gained something like 6-8.5 pounds, depending on where I started which I'm not sure of, and if anything she seemed to be warning me off gaining too much. I am smack in the middle of the weight-gain spectrum. If she'd only told me not to worry about it, that would have been fine, but all her bogus data really bugs me.

I have my 16 week checkup tomorrow and I have only gained 1-2lbs. Am not worried..

I have heard about babies "taking" their nourishment before the mum, so in theory even if the mum is not well fed, the baby will be in better health than the mum.

I lost 3 kilos in the first 3 months due to morning sickness, at my 16 weeks check up I didn't look pregnant at all, actually, tummy just started to show in the 7th month, and then, without altering my eating habits I put on 15 kilos in the last month (which I have not yet completely shifted), and DS was definitively a big boy for the standards of the family.

So... what I was trying to say is that you will be OK and so will your baby

From what I have heard, the baby takes the nutrients it needs from the mother, so it will be the mother who suffers more if she is undernourished. As long as you are eating a balanced diet and feeling well, that is all that matters in my book!

OK, see, the problem isn't so much my weight gain (which to be honest I can't bother getting stressed out about, although I do wonder sometimes) but the fact that this supposedly highly-trained, over-educated midwife was feeding me a load of ... nonsense, to back up what might have been OK advice.

She also accused me of being out of touch with my body, which is a little absurd.

I know where this woman went to University because I took a couple of classes there, and if there's anywhere where they live in their heads only, that's the place.

I lost over half a stone in my first 3 months. I didn't have bad morning sickness and was eating healthily, I just lost the weight.
By the time DD was born I was only half a stone heavier than pre pregnancy and she was 8lb 8oz and was not undernourished.

I know a few people who lost weight at the start of pregnancy so I don't think it is that much of a crock.

No, not the stuff about the weight gain, the things that she said to back it up, like that the maternal mortality rate is low in countries like Nepal where pregnant women rarely get enough to eat. In fact, it's quite high (50x the US rate) and that there were no noticable side-effects from babies conceived and in the womb durring famines.

Also that there are 20 oranges in a glass of orange juice. I have a juicer. It's more like 4.

I gained about half a stone in the first trimester in both my pregnancies. No morning sickness just lethargy which lead to the munchies. It evened out throught the pregnancies.

Oh, you're right, that's a load of cack!

Sorry, it's a bit of a bugbear with me as I am overweight and was accused of dieting and basically told I was harming my baby when I lost weight, when I was stuffing my fat face permanently!