was it because i'm 'underweight'?

[*lizz*]

hi, i dont know if anyone else has had similar problem. you'll probably hate me for this and tell me how lucky i am that i'm so slim, but its upsetting me so much
firstly i want to make it clear that i do not have, nor have i ever had any eating disorder.
i'm not underweight through any fault of my own, i'm just naturally like this, but i don't want to be because i'm desperately ttc and my clothes dont fit properly. both my parents are very slim so part of it's hereditary, i also have a very fast metabolism. i don't really excercise cuz i'm scared of getting any skinnier. i probably eat more than the average woman does on a normal day because if i ate the same amount most women seem to i would pass out from hunger cuz its just not enough for my body. i can eat a huge meal and feel uncomfortably stuffed for 10 mins or so, after about 30 mins i'll feel starving hungry again. before you ask i dont have worms which is what my dad is always saying.
i burn calories off quicker than my body can absorb them. for this reason i have always found it extremely difficult to gain weight. for the past 4yrs i've said every january "this year i want to gain at least half a stone" but it hasnt happened yet (only a few lbs through pregnancy).

i'm a clothes size 6, 5'2" and weigh 6st 13lb. bmi is 17.7 and my periods have always been regular.
i weighed less than this when we were ttc before and i managed to fall pregnant (have kept a few lbs of the baby weight thank god!).
i had morning sickness from about 6wks and had to literally force-feed myself cuz everything made me feel sick. i was still eating, but not as much as i normally would have done.
after my mmc at 8 wks, my mum very comfortingly (not) said "it was probably cuz you're underweight and you werent eating properly"-WRONG THING TO SAY!
but now its got me thinking that it WAS cuz i was underweight and now i'm scared it'll happen again unless i start gaining weight, but like i say i've tried and tried and dont know what else to do!

any advice or thoughts welcome

 

[Slinky Sarah]

first of all so sorry for your loss

secondly the fact you got preg i a good indication that your body can handle preghnancy. i cant say for sure hun cos im not 100%...maybe speak to your docs though

take care

 

[CoreysMummy]

I cant comment hun, I am the same... always been slim... BMI of 16 (I havent a clue what that means, but im 'underweight'). Im 5'7ish and 7.8stone. I have never had an eating disorder, just a fast metabolisum, like my mum, anywho, periods were always regular etc.

I managed to fall pregnant by accident, but will be TTC next year.

I would ignore what your mum said and have a I dont believe weight has anything to do with it really. Some just arnt as sticky as others...

Keep going and dont worry, your BMI is higher than mine, and I did OK!

Best of luck!

 

[nori]

Hiya hun,

Ive just popped into this forum but dont have any experience with miscarriage so i hope you dont mind. I saw the title and thought id reply.

I had years of trying to gain weight (i suffer from crohns so that may have had something to do with it when i was flaring)but there were other times i just couldnt put the weight on. I went to my docs and they checked my thyroid etc and all was normal.

I'm sure if you are having regular periods then your slim build wouldnt be the "cause" for not gettng pregnant. It may just not be the right time just yet for some reason. I would recommend you contact your doc and just ask him/her to test your thyroid and do a full blood count just to check all is ok. He may even put you in touch with a dietician so you can eat the right weight gaining foods you need or even suppliment your diet with a liquid high cal drink.

One thing i would say though is try and ignore all the horrible comments you get. For some reason ignorant people seem to think its fine to tell you how skinny you are and how you cant be eating right etc... they wouldnt dream of making comments to a larger lady! Some people dont seem to realise how much it can hurt and how not everyone wants to be a size 0!!

Hope you feel better soon,

Claire x

 

[HollyHobby]

Unfortuantly being underweight does pose more risk to miscarry, more than being overweight, if you google it says the risk is 72% which is a heck of a lot. But thats not to say this was the case with you. Most miscarriages are down to abnormalities they say, which can happen whatever size you are.

If you want to gain weight dont shy away from exercise, turn to strength exercises rather than aerobic and build up lean body mass rather than thinking eat more and gain fat, think eat better and gain muscle.

I'm sure your mum didnt mean to sound so insenstive, starving people in 3rd world countries have babies afterall, no one can say you being underweight was to blame, but I would try and gain some before trying again. Your bmi is very low - 19/20 would be a good place to be at

 

[leckershell]

I don't know a lot about miscarriage reasons but my body and metabolism sounds very much like you and I'm the girl that can pile on a chocolate gateau and still be hungry and not fat... lol.

I used to be a 6-8, though now a 10ish on the hips thanks to Ryan lol. I had a miscarriage before but have also had a beautiful baby boy conceived by accident and he was 8lb 7oz so not a small 'un. I know a lot of people on here are pretty slim but don't know their miscarriage/pregnancy rate (if you know what I mean).

If your doctor doesn't think there's anything wrong and you can't put on weight anyway then there's not a great deal you can do to change your metabolism rate etc, so as long as you don't overdo the smoking/drinking, and eat reasonably well (and healthily) then you're doing the best *you* can for *your* body. I think you can take folic acid too and pregnancy/ttc type vitamins but the ttc girls would know more about that than me. x

 

[Kittykins]

being underweight is more likely to lead to problems conceiving/implanting than actually keeping a pregnancy. The main issues associated with being underweight are that your cycles can be screwed and you may not ovulate regularly. If you managed to get pregnant once, there is no reason why you can't do it again.

By the way, whether or not you're underweight, exercise would be beneficial if you're ttc, as HollyHobby suggested. You'd be very unlikely to lose weight (I put weight on when I exercise - I'm usually a size 6-8 and around 60kg when training...), but you will improve your general health, including cardiovascular, and you will decrease the risk of osteoporosis, which is higher for underweight women. Swimming, cycling and weight-training would all be good places to start - if you watched the Olympics, none of the women in those disciplines were skinny, though obviously none of them had excess fat! Long-distance running is best avoided... Don't worry about ending up eating more, just make sure you're eating the right things and that you're not hungry - porridge for breakfast and so on.


p.s. How old are you? I used to eat like a horse and it didn't matter whether or not I exercised, I never put weight on - but I have noticed that since my late twenties, my metabolism has definitely slowed down and I am putting on flab, if not weight, pretty quickly when I don't exercise!

 

[Beth88]

Hey...

im 5 foot 3 and i when i got pregnant i weighed 6 stone 11lb..... i was very very underweight.. but as soon as i dfound out i was pregnant i started eating properly and drinking two glasses of milk a day etc etc, 3 meals...

and by the time i m/c at 7 weeks, my weight had gone up a LOT to 7 stone 7lb... maybe because i was bloating a lot as well, i dunno... but i don't believe that i m/c because of ym weight at all, and i dont think thats the reason you did..

as others have said, i think its more of problems conceiving than holding onto a pregnancy that are caused by being underweight..
xx

 

[*lizz*]

thanks to everyone for the support and advice. gonna start swimming as its a good all rounder excercise wise. still think i need to put on a few lbs...my friend suggested protein shakes, never tried them but worth a go i suppose. also goin 2 get multi-vits n stuff.

its cheered me up to know i'm not the only one like this. and given me hope to know that you can be this light and still carry a baby full term.

 

[CoreysMummy]

thanks to everyone for the support and advice. gonna start swimming as its a good all rounder excercise wise. still think i need to put on a few lbs...my friend suggested protein shakes, never tried them but worth a go i suppose. also goin 2 get multi-vits n stuff.

its cheered me up to know i'm not the only one like this. and given me hope to know that you can be this light and still carry a baby full term.

Bah, if your anything like me, shakes wont work - Iv tried eating like 7 meals a day, nothing works...

but good luck with it. And I wish you a happy healthy pregnancy, you will have one

 

[mrs_tommo22]

Have you thought about speaking to a dietcian and taking pregnancy vitamins to get your body ready for a pregnancy - might help and wont hurt trying.

 

[honeymummy]

I very much doubt it hunny,as myself was 6 and a half stone when I got pregnant with my first and was convinced I was going to lose it,I never thought I would cope in labour as I am very very petite but I did just fine giving birth to a healthy 6 pound 11 little boy,I am still slim am 32 years old and only weigh about 7 stone and am now pregnant with baby no 3,if you were to slim you would not become pregnant and as long as you are eating healthly than there is no reason why you cant become pregnant again,my midwife told me its usually very overweight woman who cant get pregnant and may have trouble carrying a baby full term and also what about all those small orential woman who have succesful pregnancies,dont beat yourself up about it this was not your fault,pm me if you need a chat

 

[Noor~ul~Usman]

I'm not as slim as you but throughout my teens I just couldn't gain weight and would always be between 7st 8lb and 7st 13lb. I could never get to 8st no matter how much I tried I was 5' 5" and a petite size 8. I saw a dietician who couldn't believe I wasn't overweight with the amount of caleries etc I took in (ate loads of junk food) and just basically said enjoy it while it lasted, try to eat healthier and I must just have a high metabolism
Funny thing is my mum's side of the family are actually prone to ballooning out at about 20yrs+

At just shy 21yrs old I'd bulked out a little over the hips and in the boobs so I was a size 8-10 depending where I shopped but I still needed to get petite size and could now maintain a weight of 8st 2lb

I got preggas completely by accident (tbh I was kind of thinking I might be infertile because I'd been sexually active for just over 6years and hadn't always been great with contraception but had never had a scare) but the egg sack didn't implant properly so the baby never developed. I had some harsh (but apparently well meaning) advice a few weeks before I found out and started to m/c from friends, about I needed to eat regularly etc because my body is too small and weak and I would end up m/c if I didn't make a concious effort to put on weight They were kinda surprised that the m/c had nothing to do with that though when I told them

Apparently something like 1 in 3 first time pregnancies end in m/c and of those m/c then 1 in 5 is because it didn't implant properly at the start. Doctors never said it had anything to do with weight at all it's just bad luck.

6 months later I get pregnant again - completely by accident. I'm now 34weeks in and apart from getting SPD in these last few weeks (which ANYONE can get) the whole pregancy has been text book
I'm pushing a size 12 now just because of how big my boobs and hips are now they're getting ready for iminent baby. When I was last weighed at about 20weeks I hadn't put on any weight at all!! I'm betting I have now though with the water and baby etc

*** Don't meant o give my life story but I guess what I'm trying to show you is that if it's meant to be then it's meant to be and will work out - and that I also had some hurtful comments thrown around about my weight but even though everyone comments on how slight my build is (even hospital midwife said today she bet I was really small before I got my bump ) it didn't have anything to do with it really and I've gone on to have a really easy preganancy

 

[uncle_bens]

I'm not in your position but I wouldnt blame yourself for this and chances are if your periods are regular and you did become pregnant than you can have a baby.

My mum was just like you, very very slim all her life, spent years being unhappy trying to put weight on, she did have one miscarriage and 8 children so don't worry too much and see what a doctor says.

 

[ericalightning]

i too have always been far too skinny for my liking, i'm extremely active and very muscley(sp)i was less than 8 stone but am 5'6, i was extremely lucky and conceived straight away and even though i've had terrible sickness until about 22 weeks all has gone well with the pregnancy.
dont blame yourself , try to eat healthily and maybe take some vitamins. i take the pregnacare + tablets, more because i'm vegetarian than because i'm underweight.
i weighed myself last week and for the first time ever i am within 'normal ' limits for weight and BMI it only took 28 weeks of pregnancy.
all the best for you in the future

 

[trixipaws]

as others hav said, m/c are most likely abnormalities in the way the pregnancy develops, right from the start and no fault of the mother or her weight.

the odds were stacked against me- i am 5'4", my natural weight is 7st 7lb but its usually way below that and has been as low as 5st 11. unlike u my low weight was due to drugs and not eating properly. on top of this i had untreated chamydia for at least 6 years so it would hav been no suprise if i'd been infertile or incapable of carrying a pregnancy. yet i still had an accidental pregnancy which lasted to full term, in fact she was born on her due date and no problems despite still using drugs until i was 6 weeks preg (unknowingly of course i stopped as soon as i knew). if m/c were fault of mother's behaviour or due to her weight then i definately wouldve had no chance. its so cruel and sad that such a sad loss can happen to those who are most careful, and sometimes more than one time. but so many women go on to have healthy pregnancies while doing nothing different and being no heavier than they were the first time.

another anecdote- my girl friend gave birth in january, a natural birth to an almost 10lb baby boy, she went overdue as well- and im not kidding this girl she is 29 years old but she looks like a pre-teen. she is 5'0", and weighs 6st usually. she was 9st at full term. she isnt skinny she is just very, very, very dainty, like a little girl. her weight was not a problem for conception or pregnancy.

dont blame urself its really not ur fault for being slim