Why am I a raving lunatic?
I don't feel like I can mention ANYTHING feminist in 3D without peoples' eyes going glazed over, lately. I've had several mini-flounces, shunnings or just people drawing back from what I'm guessing they think is my 'extremism', here and online
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Mentally I'm still sorting through it all.
On top of which I'm dealing with the fact that right now my body has changed shape quite dramatically - I've lost a lot of my waist, my hips have spread in preparation for childbirth, my breasts have changed size and shape, and everything is puffy because I'm retaining water.
I'm frustrated, because numb/pins and needles in my arms, legs, hands and feet have been curtailing my exercise, plus leg cramps from the extra weight, and extra tiredness, and if I jump about too much or get too dehydrated I get very painful gastric reflux. I can't eat what I want either, because of the reflux.
I generally feel very frustrated when thinking about body issues at the moment. I think I may need to set it aside and come back to it after I've given birth. Hopefully, I will then have the added bonus of viewing my body as a useful tool - that provides nourishment, that produced a healthy baby (as everything so far has indicated complete physical health for both Splodge and myself), and I can start to try to figure out exactly where I stand.
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I don't think that a BMI is the best indicator of health either. I don't ever exercise and I eat what I want (though very healthily in general), and I have a normal BMI partly because of genetics. What I am interested in are those studies about apple shapes vs pear shapes, in that if you naturally carry more weight around your middle, you are more likely to have heart-related problems. I haven't read them in detail, but they do seem to be more accurate than BMI studies.
On one hand, I think that those comments made to you by your midwives were inappropriate, but then again, there is a lot of research about the risks of being overweight while pregnant. I don't know if they were just trying to give you advice, but went about it completely the wrong way (the "eating chocolate" comment was definitely uncalled for)?
There is still so much we don't know about weight and health, and particularly weight during pregnancy, that people should be more careful about what they recommend. At the end of the day it's your body, and if you're comfortable with it, I wouldn't worry about their advice. :)
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The reason I agree with Kate Harding's statement "fat is a feminist issue" ties into this, actually - a few of the reports on those studies that I came across spoke of how men tend to gain weight in an apple pattern, whereas women tend more towards pear (again, YMMV, this is a generality at best). But women seem to be the ones that get the most hung up on weight and weight issues...
I guess at this point it just seems like we're still dealing with such a grey area that the best we can do is make statements about "generally" that do not fit across the board - and the human animal REALLY WANTS to categorise, so people turn "possibly"s into "this means this for sure"? These sorts of things would be more your area than mine, oh Psych major. ;)
The chocolate comment nearly killed me - On the few occasions I've had more than a Jaffa or two in any one day I've had reflux so bad Mylanta couldn't cure it.
And research notwithstanding, we come back to "what will them telling me off for my body achieve?" I was already overweight and pregnant, and not eating properly during pregnancy is almost a guarantee for an unhealthy, under-developed baby.
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