loose/slack abdominal muscles cause of large fetus?

[earlycomputers]

Hi - I am 16 weeks pregnant and a recent midwife checkup showed that I was measuring large for dates (up to 2 weeks larger). She suggested that the baby is longer/larger as my abdominal muscles are very slack (which they are especially as this is my 3rd baby). I have also read elsewhere that a loose abdomen can cause one to have a large for dates baby. My question is - why is this? Ok so there appears to be more room in my abdomen for the baby - but why should that allow it to grow more quickly? Does this mean the baby will be born heavier than average? thanks in advance!

My stomach muscles are completely shot, but dd (2nd baby) was 7.1lb. Also preg with 3rd baby now, look huge for 13 weeks!! But was the same with dd.

I don't think this is true - the size of your baby will be mainly due to genetics and perhaps a medical condition if you have diabetes, not the space it is enclosed in, plus it is your uterus which the baby is in which stretches first and the abdomen accomodates it. Cx

I think there's a correlation but it's not a cause, instead the two factors are linked by another underlying cause. People tend to have looser stomach muscles because, frankly, they're not big on exercise as an instrinsic part in their daily lives, (for example I can't remember the last time I did sit ups) and quite often people who don't exercise are less fussed about eating rabbit food and living a 'healthy lifestyle' (gah I hate that phrase) so tend to eat, not necessarily by laziness or lack of virtue but simply because they're not full of alfalfa beans and salad, more calorie-laden rich foods that produce bigger babies.
Lifestyle causes weaker tums and also bigger babies, not weaker tums causing bigger babies on their own, IYSWIM...

I dont have diabetes - but yes, my stomach muscles have been non existant since having my other kids. I am a slim build and have a BMI of 19 and have put on only 1 or 2 lbs since this pregnancy, so dont overdo the calories. Still dont see how looser muscles = a larger foetus size

My third child was my smallest by about three pounds, my stomach muscles were crap before i had her, so if that is true, i am an exception.

Wonder if its linked instead to later pregnancies. Most people I know seem to have larger kids as they go on. Okay apart from Tamarto Maybe the body gets more adept at building babies as we go along??

I'm due my 3rd dc any day now and have had 2 9lbplus babies and the only problem i have had is because my muscle are weak is that i have had an unstable lie which means this baby is not being held in place.

Ds 1 9lb 1oz was enormous with him and muscles ached and was quite painful towards the end. Returned to a size 10 (pre prgcy size) but had to 'tuck' my stomache into the top of my jeans as I had a lot of excess skin through stretching.

Ds 2 1/2oz off 10lb and had the most enormous bump very early on, people kept saying 'ah, not long to go now now eh?' and they looked flabbergasted when I said 'yes, 4 months...' with exercise (personal trainer so regular, good quality exercise) and got back to pre children size 8. I still had an excess of skin that I had to tuck into my jeans. PT says no matter how much exercise I do I'll always have it due to the stretching.

Am prgt with ds 3 and have had 20 week scan and he's a normal size for dates -not had one of those before! - bump not overly big, in fact people are now commenting on how small I am!!

Will be exercising asap after ds 3's birth!

muscles do ache like billio in the night when I turn from one side to another, very painful at times. Not had that before.

They do say babies tend to get bigger the more you have, mine went backwards though biggest was DS1 then DS2 then DD.

I had a very small bump with DS1 so small i was given a growth scan, they told me he wouldn't be very big and he popped out at 10lb 2oz!