Overweight And Pregnant (Plus-Size Pregnancy)

Over the many years I have been talking and writing about pregnancy at larger sizes, I have found that many women of size really worry what they are going to look like pregnant...... yet it's very hard to find pictures of fat pregnant women online.

I have searched long and hard for images of women of size during pregnancy, birthing, and breastfeeding to use on my blog and website.

I have found almost no pregnancy and birthing images; I have found a few for breastfeeding (like the one I use for my blog, above right), but even those are hard to find. And often those images are not especially "well-rounded."

Now, of course fat women have been having babies for ages, but apparently there is a cultural taboo against showing it today. If you were looking for images online now of fat pregnant women, you'd be hard-put to find many.

And forget about finding any pictures of fat pregnant women in birth books. That might mean condoning obesity in pregnancy (gasp!).

So if you are a fat woman and want to know what pregnancy or birth as a woman of size looks like, you'd be hard-pressed to find any images, any inspiration whatsoever,anywhere.

This is ironic of course, because fat women were used as fertility symbols in many ancient cultures, like the picture below of "Goddess Giving Birth," or the famous Venus of Willendorf image.



Of course, many of you fat chicks out there have had babies in the digital age, yet few fat women post their pregnancy pictures online either. Because of body insecurity, fear of harassing emails, and the cultural taboo about being fat and pregnant nowadays, many women of size do not publicize their pictures of themselves pregnant.

I'd like to change that. I'd like to collect a gallery of photos of plus-sized women who are pregnant, birthing, breastfeeding, and parenting.

Right now, I'm especially interested in shots of fat women pregnant and giving birth, because those are the images I get the most requests for and the ones that are hardest to find online, but I'd be happy to have any sorts of pictures.

Let's show the world that fat women DO get pregnant, DO give birth, DO breastfeed, and DO have children and parent just like everyone else.

If you have a photo you are willing to share on my blog, please send me an email at kmom at plus-size-pregnancy dot org (no attachments, please).

You will need to give me permission to use the photo, and you might want to include a few details like how many weeks you were, number of prior pregnancies, a general idea of your pre-pregnancy size (dress size works well), things like that.

Don't send me 150 photos; pick a couple of the best and send those. 

I especially want birthing photos because images of fat women giving birth are the hardest to find, and it's important to document that Yes, fat women can and do give birth vaginally too.

That's not to say that I don't want cesarean photos either, because these are important to document too. But if you have photos of yourself giving birth vaginally, I'd especially love to have those.

I am also always looking to add photos of fat women of color, because women of color are often already under-represented in pregnancy and birthing photos. 

I have some photos already that I have used in slide shows about plus-sized pregnancy for NAAFA conferences, birth conferences, and midwifery conferences. However, I am still working on getting permission to use these on my blog.

So I don't have all that many pictures yet for my blog, but here's a few, and some links to others.

I have a series of pictures of a woman of size pregnant with twins, showing how her body changed all through her pregnancy. I've postied this video before, but in the interest of having several of these pregnancy photos all in one place

What is PCOS?

Polycystic ovarian syndrome or PCOS also known as the "Silent Killer". is the one most known hormonal endocrine disorders in womans. there are many signs and symptoms PCOS the early diagnosis is very important increased risk for developing several medical risks including insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure...

Studies have display that approximately 40% of patients with diabetes glucose intolerance between the ages of 20-50 have PCOS and estimated that 10% womans in america have Polycystic ovarian syndrome.

The cause of PCOS is not known. It may have a hereditary factor since  it appears to run in families and sisters of known PCOS patients are  twice as likely to suffer from it. It is also thought that environmental  and lifestyle factors may play a role in the development of the  disease.

What are the symptoms and signs of PCOS?
•Irregular periods
•Weight gain
•Trouble losing weight

There is no cure for PCOS. It can only be managed. Well yeah, there are lots of rumors and fake remedies on the internet that claim to cure PCOS. If something is cured, then you need not continue treatment. But I haven't known or read of any woman who has given up treatment and healthy lifestyle and still not gotten back her symptoms.