Body Image During Pregnancy

I’m writing this while I’m 6 months pregnant (almost 7 lol, I always try to count forward cause I’m excited for little booboo to arrive). The objective of this blog post is to help women feel less alone, more seen and to share my experience so far. Your body image might be something that you struggle with during this time, and I want you to know that’s ok. 

The joy and gratitude that come with pregnancy are immense and it’s such a beautiful miraculous time. I’m grateful for it every single day, especially when those little kicks come in BUT that’s not to say that there are tough days. & for those tough days, it’s good to have a friend to speak with and to feel heard. 

To get started, let’s quickly define body image, it represents your view, mental picture, and perception of your own body (like your size, shape, appearance) and the attitude (like your emotional beliefs, feelings, and thoughts) towards your own body. It could be an honest reflection, but oftentimes we see/perceive ourselves a little differently than what the honest reality is like at the moment. 

Pregnancy is so vital in a woman's life as her body goes through MAJOR transformation. Research has shown that during pregnancy and postpartum, women tend to be unhappy with their bodies regardless of how they felt about their body pre-pregnancy.  

What’s important to remember is that we’re all different and the way that our bodies grow, change and shape themselves during and after pregnancy is so unique to each individual. Some women go through their whole pregnancy not enjoying how things are and that’s ok. 

Part of what makes this difficult is that we are often overwhelmed with images of expectant mothers with perfect baby bumps and weight only gained in her belly compared to anywhere else in her body. & this is simply not the reality for the majority of women and trying to fit in that box is toxic in my opinion. 

This happens for many reasons and there are physical changes that happen during this time that make this so, like: bigger breasts (mine were like triple their size by week 4 lol) and stomach and stretch marks, acne (what glowy skin lol?), skin pigmentation and varicose veins that can possibly develop for some women. This transformation happens over 10 months (not 9 lol because you’re actually pregnant for 40 weeks), the mental stress and the external pressure of staying fit make women feel - not great.

Reasons this happens to women: 

1. Natural weight gain during pregnancy skews us from the comfort we were in. You’re used to a certain body shape and weight that you’ve been at for a while or worked hard towards and going through a major change of increased 11-16 kg for normal BMI is a huge shift in a relatively short period of time. Usually a weight gain of 11-16 kg happens over at least 3-4 years if someone is adamantly trying to gain weight. 
2. Pregnancy changes changing your usual vibe: Tiredness, lack of fitness, the feelings of being ‘less able to do things’ because of discomfort, aches, pains, nausea, vomiting - especially during that first trimester. This was difficult for me to deal with in the first trimester because I didn’t expect the morning sickness to last all day. So, I had to shift my training schedule from the usual 5-6 times per week to 3 times per week until I felt better in my second trimester. 
3. The fashion industry can make this difficult. Maternity jeans are simply not cute lol this is total personal opinion but like I think they don’t work as cutely for me. It’s also a struggle to find the right size as a pregnant woman and you don’t have many options in real stores. I often have to shop online and return a whole bunch of items that don’t work - I don’t find this process so convenient lol. So more often than not, I end up wearing loose and shapeless clothes which don’t always help make you feel your best. 
4. Social media can be triggering
• The internet is filled with pregnant celebrity photos that are edited to look a certain - not always realistic- way
• Pregnant women end up expecting to look like them and create a mental picture of a ‘perfect pregnant’ body - which is not possible as the change in our body during this time is very much out of our control (to a certain degree). 
• This can lead to a negative body image and self-comparison to others to fit into that box and seem attractive to others. 

How can you minimize body image problems during pregnancy?

1. Understand the physiological changes your body goes through during pregnancy. This image below has helped me understand where and how the weight goes.

2. Talk to people you trust and share your thoughts and feelings. You’d be surprised at how common this is among mothers. 

3. Be aware of your thoughts – are these factual or are you putting pressure on yourself?

4. Engage in regular exercise (if there is no medical restriction). Do the best you can during this time. Exercise can help with you mental and physical health during this time and it helps release endorphins that can improve your wellbeing. 

5. Eat healthily.  Good quality food like whole grains, green leafy vegetables, healthy fats and lean protein will nourish both you and your growing baby. Having chips, chocolate and other less nourishing food is okay in sparse amounts during pregnancy as long as your main focus is the nourishing food. 

6. Do something that relaxes you and makes you feel good like a prenatal massage. 

7. Speak to a therapist if you need to.

8. And please remember that you are not alone. 

I’ll leave you with these thoughts and conversations I've had with people around pregnancy: 

1. Whenever we look back, it’s not as bad as we think it was, embrace this time and try to be as present as possible.
2. Dress up your bump even if you don’t feel like it at the time, when you look back, you’ll love seeing it.
3. Know that this is normal, the discomfort is common. It's good that you are aware this is happening  so you can comfort yourself during this time and know that it will pass.
4. Wear things that make you comfortable - I'm in leggings 90% of the time 
5. A piece of advice I’m giving myself at 6 months pregnant is go shop for clothes that help embrace this new phase instead of feeling stuck with what I currently have in my wardrobe.