New Type of Anorexia, Mommyrexia - Striving to Stay (Too) Thin During Pregnancy

Obsession with Pregnancy Weight Gain Inspired by Stories of the Stars

On July 11, 2011, former Spice Girl and songwriter, singer, dancer, actor, fashion designer, fashion model, and business mogul Victoria Beckham, who is married to soccer star David Beckham, gave birth to their fourth child and first daughter, Harper Seven Beckham. Even in late June, photos of Beckham suggested her weight gain during pregnancy was, as the New York Post described it, less than a beer belly.

In 2010, reality television star Bethenny Frankel lost 30 pounds (13.5 kilos) within a month of giving birth to a baby girl. And in April 2011, entrepreneur and TV celebrity Ivanka Trump posed in a Playboy  Bunny costume in a photo shoot published in the June edition of Vanity Fair. Ms. Trump gave birth to a boy in March.

Perhaps in response to the iconic imagery of celebrity mothers who hardly notice weight gain, many new mothers who are not celebrities are attempting to avoid weight gain during pregnancy by not eating. There's even a new term for it, mommyrexia. But is the label fair?

How Food Avoidance During Pregnancy Affects Mothers

Many new mothers resent the implication that by wanting to stay thin they are somehow anorexic. New mothers, after all, don't usually have all that many opportunities to exercise. Unless you are a Victoria Beckham or an Ivanka Trump or a reality TV start, you don't have a personal staff to take care of your child while you take care of yourself.  And if you aren't a Victoria Beckham or an Ivanka Trump or a reality TV star, you may be concerned that your spouse's eyes (or more of him) will wander if you do not return to your previously thin state as soon as possible.

Some women deal with their desire to be thin by starving themselves after pregnancy. Women who do not eat after their babies are born, however, are not likely to be successful at breastfeeding, which has profound benefits for the child.

Some women seek to minimize the need for losing weight after delivery by eating as little as possible during pregnancy. Calorie-restriction certainly reduces pregnancy-related weight gain. Mothers typically experience few or no long-term physical health effects of their own if they don't eat enough to support normal fetal development. One study even found they were less likely to suffer a potentially life-threatening pregnancy complication known as preeclampsia.

How Food Avoiding During Pregnancy Affects the Child

The effects of semi-starvation during pregnancy, however, have life-long effects for the child. A woman's body will send nutrients to the baby even when the mother eats normally or less than normally for an expectant mother. The unborn child's body makes sure it gets enough nutrition by activating genes for a hormone called ghrelin.

As American television's Dr. Oz puts it, "Ghrelin is your stomach's way of yellin'" to the brain that fat cells need to be fed. Children born to mothers have extra-active appetites beginning at birth all the way through life. Disorders of ghrelin regulation result in increased risk of diabetes and hypertension in adulthood. Researchers have also linked starvation of the mother during pregnancy to the child's increased risk of schizophrenia.

Even if mothers don't care about the health of their children, what kind of fashion accessory is a fat child for a thin mother? Or how about a fat, schizophrenic child who has to take insulin? What a mother does to save her appearance can cause her child life-long problems that are even worse.