Sorry if this is in the wrong place. How bad is it to be overweight and pregnant.

[HM847]

I am TTC at the moment and I am quite overweight, around a size 22. I am ashamed to be so big but things have been difficult over the past few years and I have put weight on.

I am pretty active and do exercise for an hour a day using DVDs and the gym and exercise classes. I have lost a stone recently too. I hope to continue this but as I am so overweight it might take me a year or so to lose it

I have heard recently about how bad it is to be overweight and pregnant. I am so very scared that we should not be trying for a baby with me so big. What are the complications and risks of being overweight and pregnant? How will it impact on me.

I feel so embarrased to be so fat to be pregnant. I had a miscarriage a few years ago, could this have been caused by my weight?

Thank you for any advice you can give.

Some details here www.pregnancy-bliss.co.uk/overweight.html and on ttc www.babyzone.com/askanexpert/conceiving-when-overweight but would talk it over with a midwife or your doc if possible.

I am the same size and have a 15 month old dd. I was actually a bit bigger when I got pg. What persuaded me to just go for it was a chat with my BIL who is a GP and a fairly straight talking one. He told me that smoking and drinking are more dangerous in terms of 'bad habits' when thinking about TTC and in my case, age was a far greater risk to a pregnancy than weight. I was 36 when I had dd and it had got to the stage where I really had to make a decision and having spoken to him, I decided it was a risk worth taking. As it happened, I had a reasonably trouble free pregnancy - they got a bee in their bonnets about gestational diabetes in the last fortnight but my blood sugars were fine so I'm not convinced about that.

Obviously it's not ideal but I think as long as you are sensible and try to take as good care of yourself as possible there is no reason to think it would be any more difficult or risky than it would for anyone else. Good luck

You have done very well to lose a stone so far and every bit more you lose will make your pregnancy better. If you can afford the time to wait a bit and lose some more then I really would.

I was forty and agoo few stones overweight (size 16 - 18) when I started TTC last year thinking with my age and weight it would take a few months to conceive. it didn't - it worked first time so there was no opportunity to lose any weight. The pregnancy was relatively trouble free until the last month or so when I developed SPD and gestational diabetes. Now, these can happen to anyone irrespective of weight or age but I'm sure it didn't help.

You won't get shouted at by the medical profession exactly (they see lots and lots of larger pg ladies these days)but things which can be difficult include having High BMI/ High Risk scrawled in red across your notes and being told that they can't see your baby properly on the scan because of the extra fat (these things happened to me)

My little boy was delivered after a rather unpleasant induction which was necessary because of the GD. Aside from these relatively minor problems everything was fine.

I hope I haven't put you off and if you said you were pregnant now I would say don't worry the risks aren't that high BUT they will reduce with every bit of weight you lose. I am currently using Xenical in order to lose weight because if (and its a big if) I were to get pregnant again I would want to be at a much healthier weight.

One good thing about being overweight and pregnant is that you are likely to put on much less weight than a slim person. I didn't put any weight on over the pregnancy!.

Your miscarriage could have been for any number of reasons. Please don't blame yourself.

You sound so unhappy. Of course, talk to your GP - but don't punish yourself for your weight by convincing yourself you shouldn't be trying to conceive.

Your GP will, of course, tell you that there are slightly higher risks of things like gestational diabetes etc - but listen to everything s/he says, not just the negative things. You also may be referred to a consultant if your BMI is over 35, but that's fine - just a few more ante-natal appointments.

Go easy on yourself. Oh, and if you're already exercising regularly, there are antenatal exercise DVDs. I've got one. I just never get around to using it!

I'm just nearing the end of my pregnancy (36 weeks) and when I conceived I was probably something like an 18-20. Most definitely overweight, I'd say.

Oddly, developing gestational diabetes was pretty much a godsend for me. I was forced to adopt a healthy eating regime which has meant that with the exercise and the sensible eating, I have actually lost fat and am still wearing lots of my pre-pregnancy clothes, including a dress I bought last May. I'm certainly not advocating dieting, but there are things you can do to minimise weight gain and stay as healthy as possible during your pregnancy. I'm pretty sure portion sizes and sweet things were my pre-pregnancy problem, and I am hoping to maintain my eating regime and exercise post-natally too.

Good luck!