Are you too fat to have a healthy pregnancy?

Awww being plus size AND pregnant, recipe for disaster? I think NOT!

From the second I stepped on the scale in my OBs office I was doomed. I'd of course develope Gestational Diabetes. Not to mention Pre Eclampsia. I wasn't to gain an ounce over 20lbs.

Now I should mention with my first pregnancy I was not morbidly obese, according to BMI I was just barely obese.

So my pregnancy was a breeze!!! Then summer hit, I started swelling up like a giant marshmallow. My hand became so swollen that my wedding ring had to be painfully removed.

I went in for a check up, my BP was 189/104. It had happened they were right. My weight was going to cause a whole slew of issues for my baby. However I wasn't spilling protein in my urine. I finished my pregnancy up with weekly BP checks which varied from 120/60-190/104.

At 40 weeks exactly l my water broke. After a easy night they decided because I wasn't having contractions to induce me. The next 4 hours were HORRIBLE. Then I felt like my insides were about to fall out. So the nurse had me get on the bed. IT WAS TIME TO PUSH. Just as quick as I got on the bed the doctor was screaming to prep the OR STAT. The next thing I remember is laying in a bad, feeling my stomach it was no longer hard. What had happened?

My baby boys heart stopped while I was pushing. Thankfully he was perfect.

I blamed my weight for the high BP, and cesareans are much more common in obese women.

So when I hit 260 4 years later I decided no more kids for me. It was just to dangerous. So when I became pregnant with my daughter I panicked.

My OB seemed exceptionally concerned. I was put on high risk watch right away.

As my pregnancy progressed I was just waiting for the day to come when my BP would go up, when I'd develope Geastional Diabetes....but it never happened.

Was it luck? No. I don't think it was.

I decided to do some research. Why was my first pregnancy riddled with high BP and end in an emergency surgery?

As I dug, I found that teen parents are at a much greater risk of Pre Eclampsia. Being 19 I still fell in the "teen parent" group.

As for my cesarean, not only are cesarean rates drastically increased by the use of Pitocin, but I was also in an incredibly stressful relationship, and stress causes more issues than obesity BY FAR! Now my sons umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck numerous times, which can happen to anyone during pregnancy regardless of age or weight.

In the end I still had way more questions than answers. I found a study that claimed women with a BMI 25-28 which is considered overweight had the healthiest pregnancies, and the unhealthiest were those with a BMI under 18. Which is underweight. I however cannot find the link(if you know the study I am talking about please email it to me, so I can back it up)

That leads me to this.....thin is in. For centuries "overweight" women have kept our work populated. Why is it that you must be a size 4 to produce healthy children?

I have 2 amazingly healthy children, I had 2 very different pregnancies. The harder one was with a BMI of 30.9 the easier one my BMI was 44.5...... So are we the exception to the unhealthy obese pregnancy rule?