Baby Bump
 An experience most women will have at least once in their lives, pregnancy is a life-changing event. However, as much as a ‘bump’ or visibly pregnant belly undeniably represents the beginning of new life, for many Australian mothers, pregnancy introduces enormous bodily changes that alter the relationship she has with her body, largely due to rapid weight gain.
For many women, pregnancy equals ‘fatness’, particularly in the first trimester when it is often too early for other people to discern a pregnant belly from a ‘fat’one. It’s the classic case of ‘is she or isn’t she?’ Many women look forward to the moment when they have noticeably ‘popped out’ and other people can recognise that a distended belly is a baby and not a case of having eaten too much lunch!
We only have to look at celebrity culture to notice that babies as ‘bumps’ are a big business and ‘baby bumps’ on Hollywood mums are the most desirable fashion ‘accessories’ next to expensive handbags. It was impossible not to notice Angelina Jolie and her lollipop-with-basketball-under-her-top pregnancy look; her body stayed incredibly thin yet her belly bulged out in a perfect sphere, much like a rounded basketball (to which many tabloid columnists refer as the ‘ideal’ shape of motherhood).
Yet, how is it that Hollywood glamour-mums are able to maintain their pre-pregnancy appearance without putting on much ‘baby’ weight when the average woman typically gains between 12-15 kilograms? As women are encouraged to be visibly pregnant thanks to the burgeoning maternity market with tightly fitting tops and low cut dresses, the idea that all women must embrace their blooming figure is a hard pill to swallow for many women who have struggled with body image issues from an early age.
After all, there are rules that our culture encourages us to follow:
* Go to the Gym.
* Accessorise.
* Don’t eat too much.
* Don’t eat at all.
* Stay perfect.
* Stay thin.
For many of us, there is one particular part of our body which we love to hate. How many minutes of your life have been spent thinking about the size, shape, fullness, or distention of your stomach? It is a lifelong dialogue. Whereas most of our lives we spend money, time and energy trying to shrink it, a growing pregnant belly is directly opposed to the glorified slender body of celebrities and models we see in the media every single day.
In interviewing Australian women about their diverse experiences of having a pregnant body, the question “How do you feel about gaining weight?” always elicits the most interesting and diverse range of responses. Some women who have been thin all of their lives are ecstatic about looking more ‘womanly’ with extra cleavage and a nice little belly.
Yet, many women who are fit and slim before pregnancy are horrified to think that they no longer have control over their shape; that a once tightly contained stomach will grow with a mind of its own (literally!). Sandra was particularly annoyed by her 25th week of pregnancy when she had to change her normal exercise routine as tiredness and the inability to do certain things slowed her down, “I’m someone looking in on what’s happening to my body. It’s not my body.” With a look of exasperation and even a little bit of disgust, she said, “This is just excess.”
Ask any pregnant woman and she will tell you that even strangers feel compelled to discuss the size and shape of a pregnant belly. Jessica, a former ballet dancer, mentioned that a lot of people said to her, “Wow, you’re still thin!” almost in amazement that pregnancy did not wreak havoc on her classically slender body. She told me that she takes it as a compliment. After all, she says, ‘It’s better than being called fat.”
We all have come to learn that ‘fat’ is the other ‘F’ word as the obesity ‘crisis’ in Australia reaches epic proportions. Poised to monitor every morsel of food that crosses our lips, pregnant women must also contend with an ever growing list of ‘danger’ foods. ‘Eating for two’ is no longer an excuse for additional weight gain. The surge in pregnancy exercise classes like mummilates (like pilates) and aqua mums is a sign that the fight against unnecessary pregnancy bulge must be waged from early on.
In contrast, women who have been overweight for most of their lives find that having a pregnant body can be liberating in a way that it is might not be for women that have always been thin or particularly weight conscious. Overweight for most of her life, Martha says, “I think for women who are overweight, pregnancy makes them really comfortable with their bodies.
Consequently, quite overweight people like me and some other women I know, hardly put any weight on during pregnancy because we’ve always been overeaters. We continue to eat the same amount but we have a baby using up all this energy so you actually come out pretty similarly [pre-pregnancy].” In this sense, having a pregnant stomach and not a ‘fat’ belly is a great liberation because pregnant women are actually allowed to be ‘fat’.
Ultimately, your comfort with gaining weight in pregnancy will primarily depend on your body image prior to being pregnant. A healthy body image and strong support networks (in the form of your partner, family or your local mum’s group) will go a very long way in accepting your growing pregnant belly.
In general, most obstetricians are not taking such a hard lined approach to weight that characterised obstetrics in the 1980s with women being weighed at every single appointment. With the resurgence of family birth centres, midwifery and woman-centred prenatal care, pregnancy is less an issue of weight and more an issue of well-being.
It is now possible to go through your entire pregnancy without being weighed by your doctor or midwife. Talk to your practitioner about whether you will be weighed and how this will make you feel on the basis of your own history with body image, weight loss or weight gain. Are you happier to be pregnant without reference to numbers or do you crave that kilogram fix?
As often as pregnant women express some bodily anxiety about gaining weight during pregnancy or ‘bouncing back’ postbirth, Australian women are mostly realistic about what their bodies are capable of. As much as we like to gawk at Britney Spears’ pregnancy fashion disasters or how quickly Jennifer Garner returns to stick thin postbirth, Hollywood mums have trainers and nannies, drivers and chefs to support them in minimising the weight gain during pregnancy and shedding the kilos after birth.
After all, celebrities like Katie Holmes and Heidi Klum have flat tummies postbirth because they can’t afford not to. As much as gaining weight and the impending threat of ‘fatness’, ‘mummy tummy’ or stretch marks seem to plague the consciousness of many average mums, none of these body troubles can top the happiness and feeling of empowerment that accompanies the birth of a new baby.
This article is courtesy of Meredith Nash. Meredith is currently researching Women's experiences of pregnancy and their pregnant body image. You can view her website - The Baby Bump Project' which details her research in full. She has also recently created a related pregnancy blog to celebrate the birthing bodies and experiences of everyday women: Click Here to visit Meredith's Blog. |