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pennygadgetMay 17, 2024
Literally any woman who has ever been pregnant could have told them this. This shit isn't news.
It just goes to show how woefully under-researched women's health is
BigBoudMay 17, 2024
No shit. Any mother will tell you the same. I've never been as hungry in my life as I was in my 3rd trimester and into the 4th, establishing breastfeeding. I'm talking waking up ravenous at 4am, scoffing cheese straight out of the fridge just to have a shot at going back to sleep.
While breastfeeding i would get so unbelievably hungry and thirsty, that was probably the most water I’ve ever drank in my life
DerpinaMay 17, 2024
I'm no scientist and I suffer from memory loss but duh Bones, muscles, teeth, organs, the whole extra blood, the entire placenta, this doesnt come from nothing!
notapatsyMay 17, 2024
Yet all those anti-abortionists treat women as if they merely receptacles--or garages--for the "pre-born baby" (and so-called surrogates are jokingly referred to "microwaves"). The work and toll of pregnancy on the woman is discounted.
Somehow I feel like they're lowballing the caloric debt here?
Especially when a deer has fawns about the same size as a human infant and requires over 2x the calories despite human brain development being a known huge drain on the body
girl_undoneMay 17, 2024
I’m surprised too. They estimate that gaining or losing a pound of fat takes 3500 calories. If a baby and a placenta was just stored fat, which is efficient stuff, 50,000 calories would gain you 14.28 pounds. But of course creating a baby with a brain that has a high oxygen need and a placenta is way more taxing than storing fat. An average baby is 7 pounds 6 ounces and an average placenta is apparently a pound. I’m surprised it’s so efficient. Of course there is a lot of pressure for it to be.
Deer tend to have twins and I wish they specified if they were counting per fawn.
samsdatMay 17, 2024
I’ve never been so hungry as I was when I was pregnant, and I’m fairly athletic. And my pregnancies destroyed my ligaments and my teeth, to boot.
TheChaliceIsMightierMay 17, 2024
Mine fucked my teeth so bad. I used to never have issues and now I have tons
hypatiaMay 17, 2024
Your teeth???
Haven't heard that one yet!
GracieMMay 17, 2024
Omg I was so paranoid because my mom had to have her swollen gums LASERED OFF when she was pregnant with my brother in 1981 and I asked the dentist in 2014 and they assured me “oh yeah we still have the laser if needed”.
I made sure to take lots of vitamins because the fetus will take calcium and other minerals directly out of teeth and bones as needed.
notapatsyMay 17, 2024
One of the reasons women are told to space their pregnancies is so they can build back up their calcium and mineral supply. Too many children spaced too closely together is hell on the mother's bones and teeth.
I cut mine off with a hot butter knife. It was the early part of the pandemic and no one cared about my gums overgrowing. I couldn't stand them.
Have enamel loss and my teeth were brittle a while. Lost a fraction of a tooth after pregnancy was over, not chipped from the top but from the lower portion near the gum-line, it came out with flossing. Not in the area the gums were overgrown.
What does it mean when gums over grow ? Do they start to grow horizontally over the teeth? And how can you cut them? It sounds so painful .
As my mom described it - it swells up over your teeth…? I was horrified. I was also horrified they said “oh yeah we have that laser” and not like “oh yeah we figured out you do X to prevent it”. In 30+ years they basically did nothing.
DisorderlyShrewMay 22, 2024
They grow upward over the base of the teeth. They are tender and swell and bleed. Also itched a lot. Cutting them off hurt but it wasn't too bad. It gave extreme satisfaction and relief immediately. They came back and I had to do it again but the second time I wasn't scared at all. Cutting might be the wrong word I pressed them flat with the hot knife against my tooth until they were numb and broke off. No bleeding.
Fluffy_genderMay 17, 2024
Pregnancy is bad for the gums. Some women lose teeth because of that. Also, it's definitely harder to take good care of your teeth while you're pregnant and often women can only stomach sugary and acidic drinks and they eat a lot of crackers for nausea and these are all horrible for your teeth and gums. And you want to eat constantly so it's harder to brush and floss adequately when you wake up hungry at 3 am.
TheChaliceIsMightierJune 3, 2024
Also sometimes gagging on my toothbrush made me puke (and gagging happened more easily than ever) and you can bet after puking in the sink I wasn’t trying again.
Teeth actually fall out because of the hormones! We start producing relaxin in large quantities in the third trimester to loosen the ligaments and allow the pubic symphysis, a little joint at the bottom of the pelvis, to separate. It also prepares the cervix along with a few other hormones but it can make the teeth joints loose as well. Although the dietary changes absolutely have an effect too.
Researcher1536June 2, 2024
Reason #1,897,864 why I love this site! There are so many amazing women who educate each other on all things womanhood!
Yes, that's why I said that pregnancy is bad for the gums. The hormones affect the gums and then diet isn't helping. I forgot to also mention vomiting - it's really bad for your teeth and gums
[Deleted]May 17, 2024
Here is some more to add to the notorious viral (if based) list: https://yuniquethoughtslist.wixsite.com/yuni-s-pros-and-cons/the-list
samsdatMay 17, 2024
I couldn’t even make it through the first page; I’m still in the midst of parenting and I have to be able to go on 😂
MonstrousRegimentMay 17, 2024
I've never been pregnant but even I am not in the least surprised by this. What, aren't there any women on these research teams?
The first line of the article says:
It takes a lot of energy to grow a baby — just ask anyone who has been pregnant.
But the NY Times chose a headline that makes it seem as though all women do during pregnancy is "carry a baby" the way people would carry an infant or bag of groceries in our arms, a knapsack or bundle our backs, or water jugs and parcels on our heads.
Scientists Calculated the Energy Needed to Carry a Baby. Shocker: It’s a Lot.
Morever, the headline the NYT chose assumes that the information imparted in this story will come as a real "shocker" to most readers. Which tells me that the NYT's headline writers take it on faith that NY Times readers have never grown a baby and are all utterly clueless about what that feat entails.
It would have been just as easy for the headline to say:
Scientists Calculated the Energy Needed to Grow a Baby. It's a Lot.
a_shrubMay 17, 2024
... as though all women do during pregnancy is "carry a baby" the way people would carry an infant or bag of groceries in our arms, a knapsack or bundle our backs, or water jugs and parcels on our heads.
Honestly that was the first thing that came to my mind when I read the headline: I was like, why would it be any more/less than carrying an equally weighty sack of potatoes or building materials? Then I remembered that "carry a baby" can also mean pregnancy :P
It still feels like they are trying to biohack women's pregnancy with this study. Where's the studies for countering all the complications women face in pregnancy?
Fluffy_genderMay 17, 2024
There are many studies on pregnancy, what complications do you think need to be countered?
AnonymousWomanMay 17, 2024
Anyone able to share it without the pay wall? I would appreciate it, thank you!
[Deleted]May 17, 2024
[Comment deleted]
- direct link
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CapturedthecastleMay 17, 2024
Yeah, it was obvious to me that the NHS advice was wrong. It was something like, “Only in your third trimester will you need extra calories, and even then only 200 a day!”
Like… what about growing a whole new organ in the first trimester? Why did I feel super hungry from the very beginning (when not nauseous) and need 4 meals a day, eat them, but not put on any extra fat?
It was the same with all pregnant women I know, we were all wayyy more hungry than 200 extra calories a day. How could anyone think we needed only that much?!
girl_undoneMay 17, 2024
200 calories a day? That reminds me of the official “fact” that women only produce like 2 tablespoons of menstrual fluid per period.
nopenottodayMay 18, 2024
I thought that was just that two tablespoons of that fluid that comes out is actual pure blood. Of course it's a lot more fluid than that but apparently most of it is not blood
DoomedSibylMay 17, 2024
That menstrual blood thing never seemed right to me either. I wonder how full a single pad or tampon would be with two tablespoons of liquid poured on it. This would put the lie to that nonsense.
Fluffy_genderMay 17, 2024
Does the NHS actually say that increased energy needs are only in the third trimester? Everything else says you need more calories in the second trimester and it's 300 extra, not 200.
Btw, while growing the placenta is exhausting for women, many pregnant women can barely eat anything in the first trimester because of nausea/vomiting and food aversions and some even lose weight but that doesn't seem to harm the baby. However, gaining weight in the second and third trimester for normal weight women is very important
TheKnittaMay 17, 2024
The NHS is paranoid about women being overweight, and keeping a woman’s weight down is evidently more important to them than the truth.
The NHS sadly has a lot of bias and ‘blame the patient’ attitudes, this is just one of them. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good service to have, but my god you need to be able to advocate for yourself of you’ll not end up well. In any sense.
Fluffy_genderMay 17, 2024
Being overweight is pretty bad and gaining too much weight during pregnancy is also bad with a lot of complication, such as gestational diabetes, preclamsia, etc. This is true. However, I have heard horror stories about how they treat pregnant and birthing women in the UK, with their emphasis on "natural" birth and midwife led prenatal care.
CapturedthecastleMay 17, 2024
It depends on the NHS Trust (region). When I asked my midwife at my GP surgery which hospital I should choose to give birth in, she said, “You have a choice of X (the closest), Y or Z. If I were you, I’d go for X, it’s the only one locally that hasn’t been in special measures 🙃”
It actually turned out to be really, really good. But as TheKnitta says above, you need to be able to advocate for yourself. If you’re well informed and know what buzzwords get you an appointment with a specialist, you’re grand. But if you don’t, the system is so automated (in that 1 happens, then 2 then 3 and you get a letter here, and a scan there, and no deviations) that it’s hard to get them to deviate for you.
Fluffy_genderMay 17, 2024
Did they let you get an epidural?
CapturedthecastleMay 17, 2024
They would have done.
I had a planned C section (as I had already had an emergency C section with my elder child) and they let me choose that.
They let me choose “if the baby hasn’t arrived naturally by X days after the due date, we’ll have a C section” which was quite flexible of them I guess. I was happy with that choice, though it was in part driven by the fear that if I tried to insist on a natural birth, I might need to be induced (with reduced options due to previous C section), have it not really work (as it did with baby number 1), and end up with an emergency C section performed by massively overstretched and exhausted staff 🙃
So I wanted either a “proper” natural birth or a planned C section, no half measures. They were totally on board with all that.
CapturedthecastleMay 17, 2024
Did you ever have problems requesting an epidural?
Fluffy_genderMay 17, 2024
No, I have never had to interact with the NHS, it's just stories I read online and some stuff I heard from acquaintances
TheKnittaMay 17, 2024
The NHS doesn’t know it’s arse from its elbow half the time, and it’s only patients advocating for themselves/remembering and repeatedly requesting treatments/meds they should have etc that anyone gets by. There’s a huge amount of red tape and a distinct lack of teamwork and attention to detail. It’d help if staff weren’t overworked for a start, but the attitude of the NHS as an entity towards patients is pretty awful.
CapturedthecastleMay 17, 2024
Wow, very different from here:
https://health.gov/news/202202/nutrition-during-pregnancy-support-healthy-mom-and-baby
Increased energy needs: Women with a healthy pre-pregnancy weight need about 340 - 450 extra calories per day from nutrient-dense choices during the second and third trimester. Needs may be different for women with a pre-pregnancy weight that is overweight or obese
And I don't think toast with margarine is nutrient dense...
GracieMMay 18, 2024
It’s especially hilarious because in the twin/higher order multiple community there’s discussion about food and calories and water and it’s always more more more. I probably ate at minimum 4000 calories with two placentas throughout the pregnancy until the end when my tummy was squished.
Once more men assuming women are passively doing nothing (while strategically taking for granted the fruits of women's labor) until they're shocked to 'discover' that actually women do quite a lot.