Navigating Body Image and Mental Wellbeing in Pregnancy and Postpartum

Yeah

... that women face during pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond.

Uh, you know, through every phase of womanhood I feel like we're always dealing with body image challenges.

Our relationships with food can always be-

Mm

... um, you know, improved in some way, shape, or form.

But I want your professional expertise, I want your insight from a midwife perspective on those mental challenges that women face.

Let's start with, let's start with pregnancy.

That's a good pla- [laughs] good place to start.

Yeah.

Start from the beginning.

We'll start from the beginning.

What challenges do you see women facing when it comes to changes in their body? What, what are they mentally dealing with from that perspective?

Well, I think one of the main things that I see, and a lot of questions that we get asked is weight gain in pregnancy.

Yeah.

And firstly, I just wanna start by saying gaining weight in pregnancy is completely normal.

Mm.

That does not mean you are gaining fat.

You've gotta think about what you are growing, and don't lose perspective of that.

Yes, you have a growing baby, but obviously there's a lot that comes with growing a baby.

We've got an increased blood volume, which is obviously gonna, you know, increase, you know, weight as well.

Then we've got our growing placenta.

Then we've got our uterus.

Then we have the amniotic fluid.

So of course the scales are gonna reflect a larger number than when you stood on them pre-pregnancy.