It’s a difficult issue – maintaining a healthy weight during pregnancy.

There was a time was when doctors were mainly concerned about women being underweight during pregnancy. Nowadays, the concerns go in the opposite direction as trends towards women tipping the scales during pregnancy.

A new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina suggests that women with history of unhealthy weight control strategies (e.g. dieting) before pregnancy are the ones most likely to run into weight problems during pregnancy. Based on survey of 1233 women, the study results suggests that women who are prone to dieting though not overweight before pregnancy have a higher likelihood of gaining excessive weight during their gestation period. On the other hand, those dieters who were underweight right before pregnancy may actually have problems gaining weight.

The authors suggest that these women who were dieters or had history of dieting before conception should be given special nutritional counseling during pregnancy to help them gain and maintain a healthy weight based on their pre-pregnancy weights.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends:

• for women with a normal weight during pregnancy – weight gain of 25 to 37 lbs
• for women who were underweight – weight gain of 28 to 40 lbs.
• for women who were overweight – weight gain of 15 to 25 lbs

In case, pregnancy weights should be clearly discussed with your obstetrician. Maintaining a healthy gestational weight can prevent a lot of pregnancy complications!

It’s taken me about thirty years, but at last I think I’ve made peace with my body image. It’s been through diets, exercise regimes taken up and abandoned, my weight fluctuating between 100 and 160lbs, boyfriends, marriage, separation, a new relationship, and the most important factor: my son.

Gaining pregnancy weight – a lot of pregnancy weight – taking abuse from my ex-husband for being fat, and loosing a lot of breast volume from breastfeeding damaged my self-esteem.

Now I have more positive people in my life, most of all my son, who gives me an indescribable amount of joy every day. My body cradled him safely for 9 months, and fed him, and held him and nurtured him. The lines above my belly button that will never go away are a reminder of that, and instead of being revolted by them, as I once was, today I’m proud of them.

Today, I’ve made a commitment to eat right (or at least, not too badly) and I’m also trying to set an active example. I’m riding my bike, I’m doing yoga, and we are walking to the store. I want to set a good example to my son, so that I’ll be his mom in good health, and be there for him as long as possible.

Also, throwing him up in the air has given me great shoulders!

My weight has stabilized, I feel good that I’ve managed to incorporate healthy eating and exercise into our routine (as opposed to exercise being a chore to fit into the day somehow) I have more energy, and I’m even confident enough to go out wearing shorts.

Looking back, I didn’t appreciate that I probably looked great when I was 17, even though I felt awful about myself. But now, at last, I’m at peace with my body image, I have more self-esteem, and it’s due to respect for my body and what it can do, rather than trying to conform to an unrealistic image of society’s “ideal” woman.

How has having children affected your body image and self-esteem?

When I was pregnant with my second baby I got really huge. I don’t think I realized how huge I really was during the last few months of my pregnancy. It’s hard to realize just how big you can get until you look back on it later, especially if there are photos involved.

My husband took a photo of me when I was just a couple of weeks away from giving birth. I was lounging on the sofa and although I was pretty darn uncomfortable I had no idea how big my belly had actually gotten. I e-mailed the photo to my mom, not really looking at the picture but still sending it so she could see how close to delivery I was.

When I talked to my mom on the phone a couple of days later she said that she took a look at the photo and then prepped my dad before she showed it to him. “Don’t cry,” she told him, and then revealed the photo.

Yes, ladies and gentleman, I had gotten so huge that the sight of me made my parents want to cry.

Of course I didn’t realize I was so huge, but I ran across the same photo a while ago and stared at it in disbelief. Wow, was I huge! I really looked like my belly was going to fall off. Back then I knew I was big – much bigger in the belly than some other pregnant women I knew – but I didn’t quite grasp how huge I really was.

If you’re close to the end of your pregnancy and people around you keep commenting on how huge you are, don’t worry. Even if you don’t agree with them, you probably will a year or two down the road when you look back on photos and think to yourself, “Was I ever really that big?”