Pregorexia???

I just saw an article on The Age.com.au website that talks about the epidemic of pregorexia.....

Women are now apparently expected to be the perfect stereotypical size 8-10 just with a baby bump tacked on the front and it has lead to a generation of women who basically starve themselves while they are pregnant to minimise weight gain :jawdrop:

I mean I have felt a lot of pressure about my body and yeah I have been down on myself on and off as well sometimes quite badly but how bad does it have to be to put yourself and your baby at risk?

Who do we have to blame for this?
Is it the media - have you ever seen a larger pregnant model in a pg mag???
Or are we doing it to ourselves - have we set ourselves unrealistic expectations of our body?

There is always the person who comments on what you are eating when you are sitting at your desk.... ANOTHER bread roll Dee - watch out for the carbs you don't actually have to eat for 2 you know... or are you eating again it seems everytime I look up you've got something going in your mouth.
Are you keeping up the exercise? After all you still have to lose all this again and we don't want to make it harder than it has to be....
All things that were said to me personally when I was still in the office everyday. Pressure coming from all angles??

When I was TTC I remember reading an article about Jana Pittman who ran 9km's the day she went into labour.....
I personally couldn't run 9kms before being pregnant let alone at 33 weeks. :lol: and then in a weekly womens mag I saw at the supermarket today they had all the stars who gave birth last year and how much weight they lost in how many week and how you can do it too....
One of these starts purportedly lost 22 kilos in the 8 weeks after birth and you to can do it by living on celery and exercising 5 hours a day - good for BFing? Me thinks not. :wall:

Also in this article it states that there has been a sharp increase in "mummy makeovers" women who are booking in for lipo, a tummy tuck and a boob lift / implants not long after birth....

Why are we doing this to ourselves?

In the space of a generation how have we gone from being hidden away under tents and mumu's with pregnancy being quite a taboo subject to seeming to think we should be Heidi Klum with a bump? I mean after all she was in lingerie in a Victoria's Secret Parade 10 weeks after having her baby...... clearly achieveable for the rest of us......

Sorry this became a bit of a rant but it just breaks my heart to think that as women we can't just sit back and enjoy creating this beautiful creature without spending time obsessing about how we look and what people think of us.

My DF was reading this over my shoulder as I wrote it and was shocked to realise that I have been unhappy about my body because for all he could see I was pregnant and growing our son - my weight hasn;t even come into it for him and you could see that the fact that I have even been having these feelings amazed him. :redface:

As he said to me looking quite bemused "what exactly did I expect? ":o
and it's given me cause to wonder - what did I expect coming into this pregnancy and why am I still trying to apply these unrealistic expectations now knowing what I do and beating myself up when I don't manage to do what I seem to think I should???

Yep on boxing day I ate 4 funsized crunchies, a bubble o bill and half a christmas egg. It was 3 days ago why do I still feel guilty about it?:o

You know what the funny thing is everytime I see a pregnant lady in the street I honestly only think how lovely they look, I personally don't even look at their arms or legs or bum..... and I have recently realised that the majority of people we encounter don't look at ours either.....

Enjoy your bodies ladies - we get to do something that men will never experience and can only limitedly be involved in and we will only ever get to do it a limited amount of times.

I for one am going to relax and enjoy the rest of my pregnancy and make sure that the next time I am lucky enough to be carrying and protecting a little person inside of me that I am not going to waste my pg obsessing over the needle of the freaking scale.

Rub those bellies and rubensque bums and be bloody proud!!!! :clap:

I have to agree with you that it's ridiculous. And the pg books don't help either - constantly talking about putting on too much weight. What happened to being proud to be a mummy - regardless of the less than flat tummy and the boobs that will never be the same again?

Well said, here here!!

I had a girlfriend with this - she knew it was wrong, it wasn't that she didn't eat, she just over-exercised - she just had no control over it, she tried to stop, heck she is a nurse, she knew what damage she could be doing her to baby but it was beyond anything she could control - heck she went on a 5km run the day before she had a c/s for her son (they couldn't turn him - he was breech). She cried when she saw him after he was born, knowing that his lack of bubba fat was probably due to her over-exercise, both mum and bub are perfectly fine now - he was within "normal" percentiles within a few weeks of breastfeeding and he is now a happy healthy 18 month old (who can happily wake a household of 10 people at 5am with his lungs)

So don't dismiss it as something trivial, something that is all the rage, it is as bad as anorexia, where it become a mental issue not a physical one.

Punkin - please don't think I was dismissing it I completely understand that it is a deadly serious condition...

Just questioning as women how we get to that point.....

I agree, it is ridiculous, not to mention unhealthy!

I remember being distraught standing on the scales at 35 weeks pregnant with my 1st bub and seeing that I had put on 20kgs :o I was 27 at the time, so not exactly young per se, but to look at me from behind, I had barely put on weight ... it was literally all baby, fluid and placenta. I had weighed 47kg pre pregnancy, and I'm only 5ft tall, so all this extra weight absolutely astounded me! Not to mention I ate healthily, but exercise was hard - by 6 months i already had that waddle, and people were assuming I was close to my due date. I never got back to my pre preg weight and it doesn't worry me ... I have grown and nurtured 4 babies in and with this body, I wouldn't trade it for the world!!

ETA: I'm NOT saying the disease or the idea is ridiculous, I am merely saying that the expectation that women retain or revert to their former shape immediately after birth is!

Dee - i understand where you're coming from in ranting about the media and celebrity thing - they have personal trainers, chefs etc to help them get through pg and the "aftermath" looking perfect. hell, they have stylist to help them "hide" the imperfections as well

but i don't think that the pregorexia is coming about from this - it's a genuine issue that isn't fed by the media etc - it's something they have no control over at all! i think we need to sympathise as we would with someone with an eating disorder - it's a psychological condition that needs attention

i think there needs to be two seperate issues here - the pregorexia - and the media BS that we live with every day. they aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, but i doubt most of the cases of pregorexia are related to media at all.

:

---

Just questioning as women how we get to that point.....

---

same as any eating disorder

My girlfriend knew every time she went to exercise to excess (like twice a day going on long runs) that it wasn't good for the baby, but she couldn't stop, it was an obsession with her. She looks at photos of him when he was first born and still cries now, because she knows he looked like that because of something she did but couldn't control, he is gorgeous now (not that he wasn't gorgeous then, it was just a shock to us all, him looking that skeletal), a healthy, happy, well fed, well adjusted toddler.

BG - i think u might be right.
this article didn't focus on the disease in itself as a stand alone as other articles do with anorexia or bulimia but as a factor of a general attitude in society.

please in no way think that i am diminishing the severity of the condition.......

I had a friend who regressed back into her bulimia while she was pregnant (she had a lot of emotional issues and a history of incest and being pregnant brought a lot of those issues back up for her). When her little boy was born he had a normal size skull and a weeny scrawny little undersized body. It was heartbreaking to see. I agree with BG, this is a separate and different issue to the pressure brought to bear on women by the media, other women etc.

Having said all that, many women are unneccessarily harsh on themselves and their self image during a time when their bodies are simply following a biological imperative. We are often prone to unfavorable self-comparison with other women, and yes those images of personally-trained, stylisted celebs do not help. But you can choose not to consume those magazines/tv shows, etc and read healthier, more empowering material instead. :)

it's funny - i simply don't read trashy mags - if i'm REALLY in need of a "trash" read, i'll grab something like that's life or take 5 - the gossip mags just don't do it for me! i watch TV and movies - but i don't associate that with reality - they're playing a part, and the image they project is more about the story line than the actor. i can distance myself from the shape of the actor and only see their performance. it has taken a long time to get there - as a teen, i had issues that led to eating disorder and i ended up almost dying in hospital from complications. i went through a lot of counselling to disassociate who i am from how i look. but for some people, that isn't possible - esp when an eating disorder (or exercise disorder as is the case here) hits unexpectedly at a point when they are in denial about the problems (ie during pregnancy - when they are going through so much that they believe all of it to be "normal").

i have had body issues both before and during this pregnancy already - so i can see how this would impact people to a huge degree. i find it distressing having anyone touch me or "look" for a belly as i am a larger person and feel like i'm being judged. people seem to have lost the ability to differentiate between my "fat" and my "baby" and i find it really disheartening. it would be very easy to slip into unhealthy habbits again but thankfully i have not, as yet, succumbed (thanks DH for being so supportive!)

Eating disorders are so much more than skinny pictures in the magazine, and wanting to be thin. It's a serious and severe psychological disorder. It's about control, the food restriction and excessive exercise are only symptoms of something very very wrong inside. The need to control something when life seems to be spinning completely out of control.

You can take the pictures out of the magazine, it won't change a thing, it really has very little to do with it. It's all inside.

We need to provide more support to pregnant mothers, eliminate these 4 weekly appointments, pregnancy is a HUGE life changing event, and some mothers need more support than a 5 minute weigh-in, BP check, heartrate check every 4 weeks...

... sorry, putting away my soap box now ...

Wow thats scary :( I was so lucky with all my pregnancies (well the first two - pre recovery) in that it was like a blessed relief away from all the feelings of disgust with my body and food. Although I hated putting on weight I just didn't feel the same sense of loathing that I did when not pregnant. But honestly that was just luck.

I'd like to think that if i'd been feeling the same about myself, that I would put the welfare of the baby first but who knows...I know there were days where I couldn't get out of bed and look after the kids because I was so exhausted from eating nothing except cucumber. I hated them cuddling me because I felt I was so disgusting some of it would rub off onto them.

What i'm trying to say is eating disorders **** with your head in a way you can't even imagine. You really can't understand unless you've been through it. It's awful - it's like being in a violent relationship with yourself.

As for the media thing...well, it's a an argument that I don't think has a right or a wrong! I don't think a someone who isn't pre-disposed to ED tendancies would get an ED from the media but it certainly helps to facilitate those that do. I know I had an old exercise book that was FULL of pictures of supermodels. Every page was like a collage jammed with skinny limbs and protruding bones but that wasn't why I was sick.

The media doesn't knowingly encourage ED's but I remember reading an article about Pro-Anorexia websites (hadn't heard of them before). I jumped on the internet and I know I got a lot worse after that. It's was horrifying, some of the stuff on those websites gives me chills now.

So I suppose if you know someone who has pregorexia or something similar then all you can really do is be there for them. Anyone trying to bully me into anything only made me worse. Just be there and let them know you will help them when they need it.

i have to relate to the office comments. i got soooo many! i was called 'little piggy' on many occasions and small off the cuff comments about how 'you'll never get your body back'. i was like what body?? LOL! but seriously at the time it didnt bother me as i was just into growing my baby and if i felt like eating i ate. but the one i got and really rubbed me the wrong way was, 'you are not eating for two you know....'. it's just a demeaning comment not promoting any support or happiness.

and as for the mags, like leasha said if we are talking about eating disorders it of course goes much further than simple images in magazines; but if we are talking about a woman who has just had her baby and is being brought in a million magazines from well wishing friends and all the articles have some sort of pregnancy weight-loss theme it does get you down about the way you feel and look. at least this is from my personal experience. in the end i banned them from my room and just cut out the crosswords! LOL!

i like what DD said, just enjoy the pregnancy, enjoy the fact that we are growing brand-spanking new human beings and dont feel guilty over the chocolate!!!

you're all beautiful just the way you are.

Gawd, my poor GF at work really copped it. I looked like i swallowed a basketball and she looked like a NORMAL pregnant woman. I couldn't believe all the comments about her weight that I heard. Way to encourage an eating disorder.....:wall:

Although there were a couple of girls that cheerfully admitted that they carry their babies in their bums and told her not to worry about the bollocks. I thought she looked totally AWESOME, she glowed.

I've been telling myself how much I like the shape of my tummy and enjoying being able to revel in my big bump, blah blah, and then dh showed me pictures he took at Christmas and I just look fat and disgusting. (No, I am not fat and disgusting, I know that, rationally. I'm a little bit overweight and my face is a bit puffy, that's all.)

So I guess I'm not as immune as I thought I was.

Dee, it is hard - one thing I think about is how we were *allowed* to wear tents nearly twenty years ago when I was having my first baby, but now maternity clothes are going the same way as "normal" fashion and are clingy and are designed to show off the shape, taking away, I think, that feeling that now is the time when you can just let go and not care quite so much. And the sizing for many maternity lines is so *small*.

Motherhood used to be one of those freedom periods where you were released from the pressure of being young and gorgeous, but the "yummy mummy" phenomenon has done away with that, I think, to an extent. At my age - thirty nine - I sort of expected to be exempt from that so it was sobering this morning, looking at my photos, to realise that really I'm not.

I think the media does have alot to do with it, because it is starting with our daughters when they are 6-8. They are conditioned to think thin and beautiful is the only way. You have to be very strong to avoid that these days.
And we see soooo many more pictures these days, and alot of women do feel it's important to lose weight quickly (gosh I hope I can again). The thing is though, media is not reality, but it doesn't stop us comparing.
Like CombatQueen said, I think if you're not predisposed to ED, the media won't cause it, but I think it certainly can help those that may not have suffered if it wasnt' in their face all the time. But I do think it comes down to many issues, not just seeing pictures.
I have found that I am more self conscious this time, and more worried that I won't go back to the "old" me, than I have been before. I hate putting on weight and I hate my pregnant body, with a passion. Love my baby, but don't like being pregnant. I won't diet in pregnancy, but I have thought about it. It's very hard when you have a low self esteem, or when you are judged on your looks, to not let it worry you.
I will just say I totally understand where people with body issues are coming from, and while it may be sad, i think many many women, are very conscious of how they look, as much as we'd like not to worry. And I just hope I can teach my daughter not to worry, but already at 10 she is very aware...

i remember being pregnant with my twins as a public patient, and being handed off from one Dr to another, so it was "missed" that i was verging on toxaemic - everyone just assumed i was fat when i blew up at 32 weeks.

the result was i nearly died and my babies with me. while i was being berated by the midwife who saw me for 5 minutes a month for putting on too much weight, FFS!

i just looked back at the photos of me breastfeeding them at two weeks old, and i'm skinny with chestbones sticking out.

Hmmmm. May need to collect my thoughts on this one, its something I have thought about a lot over the years. Its true that even being pregnant offers no respite from the eternal pressure to be thin. Sure the media doesn't cause anorexia necessarily, but surely it can't help that it promotes obsession with weight, diet, being thin as normal female behaviour, almost to the exclusion of all else.
As a pregnant woman I was badgered again and again to exercise.... how??? my legs and feet were so swollen that a short walk was agonising, I could swim (or float) but I was so exhausted that getting to the pool was a nightmare. I felt guilty for not exercising enough. After having the baby the pressure is on again to go immediately back to 'normal' ('normal' being thinner than is natural for most women). Don't get me wrong, I love my post pregnant body, but I actually fee that I"m going against what is socially acceptable. I have a little belly, and enormous BB's! LOL I think that after looking like a girl all my life I finally look like a woman. And I'm surprised to find I like it. But it could easily have gone the other way.
Anorexia and other eating disorders especially in pregnancy are desperately serious and I would love to see more done to protect girls and women, and treat people with these deadly disorders. As the mother of a baby girl and the sister of a very impressionable 12 year old, the media's obsession with skinny disturbs me profoundly. It may not be the cause but I'm pretty sure it doesn't help.

I don't think someone without food issues would become "pregorexic" - I could be wrong but i'm assuming most of these women already had some kind of eating disorder. I think the most important thing is that women who are known to have had issues in the past are given the help and support they need incase it comes up during their pregnancies.

I'm pretty sure that most women, when confronted with the truth during their pregnancy, not judged and offered help, would accept it.

I was asked at my first appointment with DD1 (with DS it wasn't common knowledge) if I was still anorexic and of course I said no - who is going to say yes when just asked outright like that? Lucky for me as I put before it wasn't an issue with me during pregnancy but for others I would like to see more time and support offered - free councilling, information on "pregorexia" and things that can set it off/bring it back. Even consoltations with experienced ED therapists.

As Dragonfly mentioned, people need more time with their Dr's and they need to feel like they are listened to. I know for a fact that I wouldn't admit to random midwife #1 that I was still anorexic. I have been told the most awful and innapropriate things by medical staff who just aren't educated on how to deal with people with ed's. Stuff that can really set you back if you're not strong enough to brush it off.

ETA :redface: Ok - passing that soap box back to you now Leash!

This is a really interesting thread. I saw a similar article in the paper today I think.

I think for me the biggest issue is that the glamourising of being pg but stick-thin, or of losing 22kg in the 8 weeks post-birth that gets portrayed in the media and mags as a positive thing means that pg women with a real ED illness might not be picked up or offered support because they are seen by everyone around them (possibly including medical professionals), as being the 'ideal'. Or if not the 'ideal' maybe still within a 'normal range' when they're not.

I also agree with previous posters that it is not all about the media. I have just turned 32. When I was 7-8 years old I decided my thighs were too fat and I refused to wear shorts. Where did that come from? I was a normal weight, quite slim really. It was later, in my teens and early 20's that I used the media - much like CombatQueen spoke about - to support my distorted thinking and body image.

These days, the pressure is there, if I let it take over my thinking. Weight has been an ongoing background issue for me this whole pg but I have tried, and hopefully succeeded in giving it a low profile. I refuse to worry about what are normal body changes (that is my mantra to myself when I start worrying about my weight gain). And the only mags I ever read now are when I'm at the hairdressers!

ETA - CQ: You posted while I was wording this and you said exactly what I was trying to re: need for expert help for these women.

I think that every woman feels the emotional stress of pregnancy weight gain, be it self or peer/media induced, but unless a person already has an eating disorder I don't think 'pregorexia' (does anyone else find that kind of offensive?)... I dont thin a pregnancy related eating disorder would develop. In the majority, of course I'm sure there are exceptions. But most would FEEL the stress, and keep eating (LOL that what I did!). Thats just my own opinion, of course, and based on no medical fact.

I also made my history known at my first appointment. 2 and a bit years into weight-restored recovery from a 6-ish year battle with anorexia I felt very strong but didn't know how I would handle pregnancy. Like CQ, I was lucky in that I didn't have an issue while pregnant. Well I FELT it, but Jazz was always first in my mind, in a way it was easier to justify eating and putting on weight when its for someone else, I found pregnancy quite relieving... Anyway, what about the people who don't feel comfortable saying out loud that they have an eating disorder? Or answering a direct question like CQ said? Maybe information could be passed on to ALL woman... in the Bount bag...? A non-judgemental way to pass on what could be life-saving information for mother and baby. Maybe if woman get this information, it can be a way of letting them know that its ok to say something, its not something to be ashamed of, and help is available.

And I believe 100% that eating disorders would still be around if there was no media. The media might exacerbate an already developed eating disorder, or someone predisposed to having an eating disorder, but take away the media and I believe it would happen anyway. Oh I had a 'thinspiration' book (thanks to the pro-anorexia websites who gave me the idea), but I hated myself before I ever stared at an emaciated model.
And to be honest, I personally feel it's pretty demeaning, and detracts from the heartbreaking and exhausting battle going on INSIDE a person, to say that eating disorders can be CAUSED by skinny models and weight loss ads in the media.

JMO.

:

---

'pregorexia' (does anyone else find that kind of offensive?)

---

Yeah, if i'm honest I do. But I understand that it's an easy "tag" that the media can use and if it publicises the problem then I don't mind it being used.

I tend to disagree that someone with no prior eating issues could develop a problem during pregnancy. Think about all the extra hormones and anxieties that crop up out of nowhere during this time eg. depression developing in women with no prior indicators etc. I think that the added stress and pressure on top of these changes could definitely cause someone to develop a problem, especially if they didn't have particularly high self esteem to begin with.

I know many people with eating disorders and some can pin point a specific comment or action that set them on their way eg. a boy calling them thunder thighs at high school so I would assume that someone may easily be set off during pregnancy by a firend/colleague/whoever saying something insensitive like "gee you are big for 12 weeks - hope you don't keep growing at that rate" which seems to be a fairly common occurrence from BB members reports.

Additionally I don't think it is just a food issue - as a PP said their friend was a gym junkie. So while someone may be eating all the right things if they are obsessively exercising it can have the same result. It is all too easy to fall into the trap of obsessive exercise as it does have a similar effect to some drugs.

I find the tag quite offensive and think that it is something that shouldn't be brushed off or something that could affect any women not only from an eating perspective but an exercise perspective. The addedd pressure post-birth to slim down rapidly is also an issue as it does affect the ability to breastfeed etc. So it's not just during pregnancythat the pressure is on but also once the baby is here.

:

---

I find the tag quite offensive and think that it is something that shouldn't be brushed off or something that could affect any women not only from an eating perspective but an exercise perspective. The added pressure post-birth to slim down rapidly is also an issue as it does affect the ability to breastfeed etc. So it's not just during pregnancythat the pressure is on but also once the baby is here.

---

One might call it flippant, but those who suffer from severe body image issues during pregnancy might in turn find it flippant that others aren't taking it seriously because they aren't considering it a "true" eating disorder. The distress and lack of self esteem some women feel at their post natal bodies is very real.

Trivialising it *is* offensive, for sure - but giving a serious social phenomenon a name isn't in itself offensive, I don't think. (And technically speaking, "anorexia" without the "nervosa" on the end simply and literally means "lack of eating/appetite".)