Pregnancy and Weight? Your experience?

• Obesity

I have vivid memories of gaining 40 plus pounds with each pregnancy, as cheese and crackers soothes the nausea, and because I was ceaselessly hungry. Hormones!

A new NIH study has been funded, research on EBT and pregnancy, and in meeting to plan the research, I remembered how many weight issues and food cravings were alive and well for me during that tumultuous and astonishingly wonderful time. Now the guidelines for weight gain have changed and we know that the stress levels and metabolic environment of the mother is so important to the development of the child. Excessive weight gain confers risks, that go from generation to generation. For example, mothers who undergo significant weight loss (bariatric surgery) have infants who do not display the hyperinsulemia of their pre-weight loss babies.

What is emerging is more pressure on moms not to gain excessive weight during pregnancy, but all that stress on weight control could trigger . . . stress-related eating! What is your advice for pregnant women about awareness of weight? What were your experiences of weight during pregnancy?

I recall gaining 7 pounds in one week when I was pregnant with my daughter, and having the nurse who weighed me in shock, blaming me for gaining weight. It's SUCH a sensitive time!