By: Roberta, Nalini, Narissa, Mukarrama, and Dympna

September 20, 2018

As of 2016, there were 3,945,875 births with a birth rate of 12.2 per 1,000 population and a fertility rate: 62.0 births per 1,000 women aged 15-44. Each birth comes with a new experience and I as an expecting mother had a few theories on what my life during and after pregnancy would be like. Like many women I was a full believer in the concept of “eating for two.” This belief changed after I exceeded my normal weight range gain of 25 pounds at just 6 months pregnant. After exceeding my weight gain my doctor told me of all the complications that can come with the myth of eating for two such as gestational diabetes, backaches, high blood pressure, and needing a cesarean birth because of a large baby. Since then I’ve tried to replace my donuts with apples, however, it has been a very difficult task.

Likewise,when I was pregnant with my first child I too was a firm believer in eating for two. Because I was very petite I was put under a lot of pressure to put on a certain amount of weight. No one ever sat down and talked to me about how to gain the weight I needed in a healthy way. Fast forward to 15 years and 70 pounds later, I’m still trying to lose the baby weight. Narissa has one thing going for her that I don’t and that’s age. At 21 she will no doubt bounce back to her pre-pregnancy weight like a rubber ball, I on the other hand will not bounce back because at 42 and mom to a 15-year-old, a 6-year-old and a 5 month old I feel like my rubber ball so to speak went way over the wall a long time ago and is not coming back.I think now it’s time for me to get creative and maybe hop on the spin class express and try to get my rubber ball back . Until then to all the newly expectant mom out there don’t be afraid to listen to your own bodies and don’t feel bad about putting yourself first. Your growing bundle of joy is getting everything he or she needs from you regardless of how many people you are eating for. You need to look after yourselves and the baby will take care of the rest.

P.S. Don’t forget those prenatal vitamins, they are very important to your baby’s health.

“Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers… strong competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength.”- Unknown writer.

Welcome to our blog! In this blog we take you along our road through motherhood. Two of us are mothers, one is about to become a mother and the others are trying to get as much knowledge in as possible about what their life can be like from pregnancy to motherhood.