Feeling worried about pregnancy weight

[RedRobyn2021]

I already had an overweight BMI pre-pregnancy and I am 19 weeks and have gained 20 pounds 🙈

This is my second, my first I gained 3 stone 8 pounds, this was all gone by 9mpp just from breastfeeding my daughter. But this time round, I am a stone heavier at the beginning of this pregnancy than I was at the beginning of my pregnancy with my daughter.

Feeling quite anxious about it, I really hate being weighed at the appointments, they seem obsessed with it, I just do it for an easy life but actually want to say no thank you

Me too, I had a awful year before this pregnancy and put on weight. I just say yes you can weigh me but I don't want to know how much I weigh. Everyone has been fine with this!

If you lost it that quickly and easily last time, I wonder if it was mostly water weight from water retention. In which case, you are likely to be able to lose it similarly easily this time. Just keep eating healthily with lots of fibre and iron etc, don't panic too much.

I put on an eye watering amount of weight in both pregnancies and it was nearly all water retention. The postpartum night sweats were insane!

The obsession with weight drives me crazy too, can you believe they tried to weigh me at the appointment to have a coil fitted at 12 weeks pp?! No one can force you to be weighed, I declined all throughout both pregnancies.

Hi there it's a labour ward midwife. I don't want to scare you however starting pregnancy overweight or putting a lot of weight on increases the woman's risks of all sorts of complications. Luckily, you are only 19 weeks along. I would say try to eat a balanced diet and do a fair amout of exercise. We don't recommend dieting in pregancy or starting a strenuous exercise regime. Just sensible eating habits and as much mild to moderate exercise as you can manage. I hope it helps

I know they can't but I actually feel uncomfortable saying no, I feel like I don't have a choice

I've never been on a labour ward. I had my daughter at home because I didn't want my birth to be micromanaged, surely that has many more negative outcomes than putting on some pregnancy weight? I put a question mark, but this is actually a rhetorical question.

Saying no to stuff like this is a mindset thing which I learnt much more in my second pregnancy.

In my first pregnancy and birth, I got railroaded into so much that my instinct told me wasn't right for me or the baby. Unnecessary vaginal examinations for example.

They are doing it because they don't factor in maternal distress into their success/failure criteria at all. Anything that even marginally improves outcomes on a statistical level, is deemed a good thing no matter how distressing to the mother.

With my second, they wanted me to stay overnight for monitoring, and various other suggestions but by then I'd got the confidence to say no thank you. The phrase I found worked was "Thank you for explaining the risks and benefits, I understand them, I'm choosing to decline this intervention and I accept responsibility for the consequences".

At one point they wanted to do an ultrasound on my eye. My eye! To check for gestational diabetes I think it was. I had none of the risk factors. That's when they admitted they only do it as standard at my hospital for research purposes. I declined without any hesitation whatsoever.

I've only been weighed once (and it was the only time it was offered) during my pregnancy? I don't own scales so no idea what I weigh now at 33 weeks. I'd focus on having a healthy diet and whatever exercise you can manage, that's far more important than the scales.

I put on a whopping 3 stone when pregnant with my second!

They're not obsessed and it's not about whether you will lose it afterwards, it's about your health while pregnant and the health of your baby. Just try to eat healthily and stay active and don't take it personally because it's not.