I remember the day my wife and I went to the hospital to give birth to our first child. After nine months of gestation, the variation in weight was only 5.5 kg, although its diet was normal, without any restrictions.
At our side there was another woman, who would also give birth on the same day, who had gained more than 25 kg.
They both got "angry". Miriam because "You've been a little, don't you think", referring to a theoretical slimming diet to preserve the figure that, I repeat, did not exist and the roommate because "And you have gone too much."
Now my sister-in-law and my sister are pregnant and they both control their weight with magnifying glass monthly (it seems that it is the only controllable) and seeing the importance attached to the issue of weight I ask you: How much weight did you gain during pregnancy and how was everything?
The issue of weight generates controversy
Like many other things related to pregnancy and babies, weight is a subject from which we can hear several versions.
Some say that it is very important to control the weight and others say that it is not so much if the pregnancy is normal in a healthy woman.
It is common to see cases of women who come monthly to the control visit scared of the "anger" that they will throw despite having eaten well, having gained more weight than is assumed ideal, when they are really well.
The kilogram theory per month
It has long been said that the ideal is for a woman to increase between 9 and 12 kg during pregnancy. This scale made these 9-12 kg be distributed between 9 months of gestation, telling the mother that she should gain approximately 1 kg per month.
The problem is that not every month you get fat the same and often get more or less fat. In addition, not all women have the same body mass index or age and therefore those 9-12 kg may be few in some cases or too much in some others.
This theory has caused, for a long time, that women who were gaining more than 1 kg per month were put on a diet, although the weight gain was completely normal and advisable, turning pregnancy into a sea of guilt (“your son it could be born bad if you gain a lot of weight ”,“ you are going to have problems if you continue like this ”) and causing unnecessary risks if we consider that An eating restriction in pregnancy increases the chances of having a low weight baby.
How much is the recommended weight gain in a pregnancy?
As I said, it depends on age (teenage girls have to gain more weight and BMI):
- Women who have a low BMI (> 19.8) would have to increase between 12.5 and 18 kg.
- Women with a normal BMI (19.8 to 26) should increase between 11.5 and 16 kg.
- Women with a high BMI (26 to 29) would have to increase between 7 and 11.5 kg.
- Women with a very high BMI, considered obese (<29) would have to increase a minimum of 6.8 kg.
As you can see, telling all women that they have to gain between 9 and 12 kg is out of place, since for some it will be little and for others it will be too much.
Why you have to gain weight in pregnancy
A woman with a low BMI should increase between 12.5 and 18 kg, for example. That said it seems a real barbarity, but it is not so much if we consider that the weight gained in pregnancy is a reserve for what comes next.
A lot of calories are consumed during the period of breastfeeding, so from the third month of breastfeeding, and especially after the sixth month, when more fat is consumed, women begin to eliminate accumulated reserves to the point that many women end up weighing less than they weighed before becoming pregnant.
Why is it dangerous to diet during pregnancy
If a woman is overweight to pregnancy, she must control, more or less, her pregnancy weight so that it is not excessive, but taking into account that the minimum should be about 7-8 kg.
Gaining less weight means that, in the absence of food that provides energy, fat stores are consumed. This causes babies to also consume part of that fat that the mother accumulates, instead of receiving nutrients from the food that the mother should eat. In addition, this fat mobilization process generates toxins, so it is not recommended.
And what about my wife's 5.5 kg?
My lady wife has a low BMI of 18-19. This means that you should have gained between 12.5 and 18 kg.
However, I must describe my wife's case as a "strange phenomenon of nature", since I can assure you that she ate a lot (but a lot), and should not be taken as an example of anything.
The first pregnancy ended in caesarean section and the second, in which he gained a little more than 4 kg, in premature delivery at 34 weeks (probably would have also reached 5-6 kg).
I do not say that the low weight gained is the cause of not having two vaginal deliveries at term, but I do not say that it is not (we will never know). In any case, as I said, the pantry in my house has trembled for more than 4 years (if we add pregnancies and periods of breastfeeding). Normal, if we consider that my wife, by not gaining weight, barely generates reserves for postpartum.
How much weight did you gain?
I just have to finish asking you how much did you earn, how was your delivery, if you noticed that breastfeeding helped you lose weight and ultimately wishing you to explain what you want to tell about it in order to assess, in petit committee, if it really is so problematic to earn a few extra pounds or not.
Photos | Flickr (3Neus), Flickr (Fonticulus), Flickr (Mr. Toaster) On Babies and more | Weight during pregnancy, Ideal weight gain during pregnancy, New recommendations for weight gain in pregnancy in the United States
