'Warning over obesity in pregnancy'

You can't be certain that will happen. Actually, if you breastfeed, that significantly helps lose weight for a good portion of people. I don't know you so I can't say that's a cop out but I would try to steer clear of that as an excuse not to lose weight. How do you know when you will conceive?

But the thing is that if I'm going to put in the effort to lose weight then I don't want to gain it all back by having a baby.  It's not the losing weight itself I object to, it's doing it specifically to achieve something that will just make me fat again, when there's no concrete evidence that indicates I need to lose weight in order to achieve that thing.  Plus, my mom breastfed, and she never lost her pregnancy weight.  Fat just runs in my family, on both sides.    

The whole thing is my mom's idea, and my reaction is probably more just annoyance at her than anything else, particularly since I'm not trying to conceive at the moment.  I only mention it because of the connection my mom draws between obesity and conceiving; I'm sure that's not just something she made up.    

And let's steer clear of making value judgements. Thank you.

And let's steer clear of making value judgements. Thank you.

I certainly wasn't making value judgements. If you closely read my post you'll see that. If you skim it maybe not.

I can understand the feeling historienne... I weighed 30lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight for my prev 2 kids when I got pregnant with my 3rd. It won't be easy to drop it all but its definitely doable. I was on WW when I got pregnant with my 3rd so I know what you mean... I was just pointing out things are not certain so if you really wanted to do something the possibility of something else happening (regardless of what 2 things they are) may not be something you want to hold yourself up for since you're never sure what will happen with either thing.

"The whole thing is my mom's idea, and my reaction is probably more just annoyance at her than anything else"

-- I can totally sympathize with this

Speaking of GTT for GD, etc. At my 1st appt the nurse tried to give me the test but when I asked the  midwife why she said it wasn't needed. Apparently they have a guide of 200lb or higher to proactively give the test early as well as at the normal time in pregnancy. I was 179lbs at that appt so I don't know why the nurse was trying to give it to me (other than I am short 5' 1 3/4"). When I took it around 28 weeks I passed with flying colors just as I did in my previous 2 pregnancies.

I have heard about being obese "potentially" making it harder to conceive but don't know alot about it. I don't know much about obesity and c-section rates anyway other than, at least in the US, OB's are CSection happy so I wouldn't be surprised if someone used that as an excuse to perform one unnecessarily.

I certainly wasn't making value judgements. If you closely read my post you'll see that. If you skim it maybe not.

I read it and I think maybe you don't realise how things could come across to others. Please stick to the topic, I don't want to have to lock a very interesting discussion. Any problems, PM me.

I'm not even sure what being overweight in pregnancy means exactly. Does it mean being overweight to begin with? Gaining more than you should during? There are all sorts of different guidelines out there about weight and it also seems very individualised.

I was prob 10 lbs overweight when I got pregnant, but then I didn't really gain much the first 5 months (thanks nausea!) The last month or so however my belly has gotten enormous. I don't know if I've gained too much yet but my GP last week said I looked fine (didn't weigh me though) so I'm just not going to worry about it.

A friend of mine who's pregnant started off in great shape (just ran the london marathon) and is eating healthy but for whatever reason has gained a ton of weight. She's really sensitive about it, feels like a failure. I think it would be awful if she had to be weighed all the time and lectured about it. Her baby is doing fine and I'm sure she'll lose all the weight quickly.

On the c-sections, my stepmother was in perfect shape when she had my brother, gained very little weight, and still had to have a c-section because he was so enormous. It doesn't seem quite on to scare women that they'll have to have a c-section if they gain too much weight, when it could happen no matter what you do.

Bottom line, I understand the concerns and it seems to make sense what they're already doing -- monitoring women who are really over or under weight if it seems like they have problems. But I think it would just cause a lot of unnecessary stress if they started micro-managing the weight of every pregnant woman. And they should really be educating ALL women about nutrition and healthy eating, not just women who are overweight.

I've definitely been motivated not to gain too much weight because it just seems like it will make life easier. But I only have so much control over things, ya know? I've definitely tried to be good about eating healthy (no chocolate and crisps over here, sigh) and I'm still looking at cankles for another three months.

I was under the impression that it was fairly standard for tinier people to gain more weight; I put on 40lbs myself, and I sure as heck didn't use pregnancy as an excuse to piggy out! *grins*  As it were, though... I'd be a bit annoyed if I had to listen to someone natter on about my weight when one could visually see that I was a healthy little thing; pregnancy is physically stressful enough as-is!

With both my pregnancies I weighed less at the end than when I started due to chronic sickness!  In the second I got Gestational Diabetes and it can't have been weight induced because I was losing weight not gaining it. 

I really think you should eat what you can if you have sickness and not worry about what it is you're eating - my doctor told me to drink Coke the first time round to keep my energy levels up when I couldn't eat anything.  If you don't have to worry about sickness then just be sensible - eat a little more than usual if you're hungry but try not to see it as an excuse to eat badly. 

I also confess to having the odd glass of wine - sinner that I am!!

I gained loads of water weight as had major fluid retention/oedema with all three of mine.

And breastfeeding, I put on masses of weight because I sat around feeding my gob.

I barfed my way through the first part of all pregnancies and then got hella acid reflux for the second part, so never wanted to eat much.

I'll never be a size 8 again, I'm also 8 years older.