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VBAC
you DO have control over the size of your baby!
just an FYI for anyone who is concerned about this...i read a few such comments in the GTKY post below.
when i was interviewing MWs for my second pregnancy, one turned me off greatly b/c she responded curtly to a question i asked. my son was born at 8lb 7oz (which I don't consider to be BIG). he was posterior and i had a c/s for failure to descend.
i asked her what she'd do differently in my pregnancy/labor to give me the best chance at a vbac.
she said "grow a smaller baby." that was it.
i didn't want her as my midwife b/c i thought she was too simplistic and i didn't believe that i had any control over how big my baby could get.
but i never got that answer out of my head.
it influenced my diet while i was pregnant. i was slightly overweight at conception and made sure to watch what i ate...not reducing calories necessarily, just making sure i ate a balanced diet, didn't overeat, and didn't eat junk.
i also tried to get a little exercise as much as i could. that mostly meant taking a walk every other day and swimming a couple times a week. that's easy, right? most everyone can take 4 walks a week.
i never connected this thought in my head to that midwife interview, but i realize now, post-birth, that's where it came from.
my baby was 7lbs 9oz, almost a full pound smaller than my first baby.
who says 2+ babies are always bigger!
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Re: you DO have control over the size of your baby!
i'm spreading misinformation because i reported what a midwife said to me about how she would approach my pregnancy and labor? or because i posted that i did things differently with my second baby and had a different outcome? i don't understand what is misinformation about that.
certainly some women have done as you said, but others have done as i said.
why not have positive thought and positive action?
i changed my outlook, my diet and i exercised and i grew a baby almost a full pound smaller. other women might be able to do the same and should be encouraged to do so, not scared into thinking there is absolutely nothing they can do to influence their pregnancy and labor outcomes.
WOW. really?? So we should all diet and exercise to make smaller babies?? Maybe take up smoking too??
Maybe I had a big baby b/c I had GD. Insulin at bedtime, strict diet- totally healthy. And had a 9lb 11oz baby with a 97% head size.
Silly me. It's totally my fault! I'll stop eating now.
You have no proof that your actions caused your baby to be smaller. You are dealing with a sample size of one here.
My problem with this post is that it implies that it's a woman's fault--or her body's fault--if she has a big baby or has a cesarean for failure to descend. Women already get enough messages that our bodies are defective, that anything that goes wrong in birth or motherhood is our fault, etc.
Of course it's good to eat healthy and exercise during pregnancy. If you want to tell us more about the way you ate and exercised in preparation for your VBAC, I would be all for that.
It is important to eat an adequate diet but that doesn't ensure that you will have a smaller baby. That is just silly. There used to be a myth about what you eat determining your child's gender. Stooopid misinformation.
My baby is two!!! Baby girl 9/17/09
My other baby is still a baby! Baby Boy 11-30-11
I agree that you have no proof that your diet caused your second child to be smaller of if that child was going to be smaller anyway.
My DS was 10 lbs, 2 oz. My DD (second child) was 8 lbs, 5 oz. Alomst 2 lbs smaller. I did nothing differently. She just received different genetics than DS. (I did not have GD with DS- he was just that big.)
What you're saying is absolutely false. While it is important to eat right and exercise during pregnancy, this does NOT mean you're going to have a "small" baby.
Like pp said, I've known women who eat junk and have small babies while others eat well and have huge babies.
I had my OB tell me the same thing - that I should have a smaller baby (or a bigger pelvis, she added on). Main reason I changed practices.
I googled (I know - not the ideal or most substantial form of research) after being told that and found that the only thing that had been scientifically proven to decrease baby's size is exercise, and fairly substantial exercise. Even then, in the study it only decreased average size by about 4 - 6 oz or so.
DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)
Yes, I agree with this. But this is a different statement than the OP was making. Maybe this is what she meant but it's not how the post came across to me.
Lol, well if anyone is the queen of coming across wrong, it's me!
Am I reading this right that you VBAC-ed a 10+ lb baby? WOW -- That is amazing -- congratulations!
I agree I dont know how the weight of you baby is determined but doctors used to ask how big were you how big was the father I was about 6 pounds and some ounces my son was 8lbs and 7ozs and they thought he was huge I dont see him being a huge baby just not average,,i gained 10 lbs through out my entire pregnancy I was terribly sick vomiting day and night and couldnt keep anything down no matter how much or what I wanted to eat food wouldnt stay down so i didnt gain much weight yet I my son was "big"as some would consider. I was already overweight prepregancy and frankly my OB thought it was wonderful and told me to keep up the good work with my weight gain and they knew i was miserbly sick nothing helped..so I dont think eating less does anything. and because he was big they had the nerve to say I was probaly going to end up having a c/s I must have took 3 GD tests that I passed with flying colors and I ate healthy before hand and during what I could keep down..still a big baby and I was active
I agree with this! I did not eat terribly while pregnant and did not have GD; however, big babies run in both sides of the family - my husband's aunt had a couple kids that were 11 lbs+ (and birthed them all vaginally). Our first daughter was 8 lbs, 13 oz and my second was 10 lbs 12 oz. I ended up with an emergency c-section with #2 because she would not move down during pushing.
I ate way more sweets than I ever do. I am definitely trying to improve my diet this time. But my DD was the same size. It's just how it works. They also encouraged women to gain less than 10 pounds years ago. Babies were in general smaller, but I don't think you can just apply a direct correlation like the OP suggests.
Ok this post seriously pissed me off.
I am 5'0, was not overweight when I got pg with DS- he was born 9.7 oz. Then I had DD (a girl, who was supposed to, according to this post, be smaller just because she was a girl?) - she was 11.5 oz. I did not have GD. And I worked out plenty- I owned a pre and postnatal fitness company and taught classes every.single.day during my pregnancy.
DH is 6'8 and weight 330 pounds (he's an athlete, not obese).
Please don't tell me that my DD was big because I ate too much. I had no control over how big I grew my kids.