When I became pregnant with my first baby I entered into a whole new world of health care. Until then I would do an annual 30-minute exam and was good to go for another year. Suddenly I was being monitored monthly through my urine, my heart rate and most importantly my weight. At my first visit, the doctor looked at me sternly and told me that I needed to gain 25-35 pounds throughout my pregnancy. I was a young girl in my mid 20’s and weight was always on my mind. The thought of gaining 35 pounds was not exciting. Especially since I had finally hit my goal weight after losing the last 5 pounds of those freshman 15. Little did I know just how easily those pounds would add up.
By the time I was six months along I was regularly getting admonished by my doctor for gaining too much weight. If I came in weighing five pounds more than last month she was concerned because I should have only gained four. I started to freak out. After all I was new to this game. She must know better than I do. I started a meticulous diet of no junk food and counting calories and countinued jogging 3-4 times per week. Yet at my seven month check up I came in weighing another 5 pounds heavier. At this point my doctor sat me down and told me that if I didn’t stop gaining so much weight I would end up 70 pounds overweight and would never be able to lose it. After that I started to dread my check ups. I had done everything I knew to do and was still gaining more than I should.
At the end of my pregnancy I had gained 40 pounds and within six months of giving birth I had lost all of it. I was much more relaxed about weight gain with my second pregnancy. I was taking care of a preschooler and didn’t have as much time to count calories or exercise. I also had a doctor that didn’t mention my weight once. During that pregnancy I also gained exactly 40 pounds. My mom told me that when she was pregnant with both of my brothers( I have 2 boys) she too gained 40 pounds each time. Which begs the question, do pregnant woman really need to be put through all of this weight watching drama? Thursday, May 28, 2009 the Institute of Medicine released the first national recommendations on pregnancy weight since 199o. The new recommendations aren’t that different from the current ones.
- A normal-weight woman, as measured by BMI or body mass index, should gain between 25 and 35 pounds during pregnancy. A normal BMI, a measure of weight for height, is between 18.5 and 24.9.
- An overweight woman — BMI 25 to 29.9 — should gain 15 to 25 pounds during pregnancy.
- For the first time, the guidelines set a standard for obese women — BMI of 30 or higher: 11 to 20 pounds.
- An underweight woman — BMI less than 18.5 — should gain 28 to 40 pounds.
So should we be telling a woman’s body how to work when it is creating life? Or should we just accept that each of our bodies are different and gain weight differently. Now I am not advising that we throw caution to the wind and sit on the couch eating bon-bons for nine months. Quite the contrary. I am very health conscious and think that pregnancy is the most important time to be healthy. But on average, overweight and obese women already are gaining five pounds over their upper limit. Is it reasonable for doctors to expect these women who have trouble, for whatever reason, managing their weight normally to be able to manage it better than average sized women during pregnancy? I think that our medical community should embrace a more liberal stance on what it is to be healthy. Rather than enforcing numbers on a scale, maybe our OB/GYNs should be asking us if we drank enough water this week, got our RDA of fruits and vegetables, kept our calories where they should be and avoided fried foods and excess sugar. I am almost six months pregnant with my third baby and not once has my OB/GYN(and I’ve had a different OB/GYN for each pregnancy) mentioned a calorie range during any of my 3 pregnancies. This would give us the practical tools we need to achieve a healthy weight gain. Not to mention reduce our stress level. Don’t we have enough to worry about?
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