pregnant and worried

Share your experience, challenges and success implementing the McDougall program with family and children.

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pregnant and worried

Postby Fuzzy » Thu Aug 23, 2018 12:14 pm

Hello everyone,
I've been following the McDougall diet for a couple of years now. I was never really overweight or had severe health issues, this diet just kind of made sense from medical and ethical perspective. I'm not perfect but I would say I follow the diet to about 90-5%. Being an agreeable type of person has kept me from reaching the 100%, especially during family visits.

Now I'm four months pregnant and since the beginning I've been bombarded with advises such as "you should eat more meat, cheese, eggs, protein". You know how it goes. I'm taking the prenatal supplements, because I decided that this is one battle I'm just letting go.
In a couple of weeks I will have a test for pregnancy diabetes, which is pretty much a standard test where I live. I'm a bit scared, that it will turn out positive, I have no idea what I will do with my meal plans. I can't imagine giving up my pasta, rice, potatoes and an occasional piece of bread. And instead I should exchange them with "lean protein", you know the stuff that we don't eat: poultry, fish, egg whites ... I stay away from added sugars and processed foods anyway but as far as my doctor told me, if the test turns out positive, I will have to limit my CH as well!! Don't get me wrong I do eat veggies of course, but having to eat meals almost no fruit and no CH omg! Even peas and beans are supposedly not on the safe side. Besides I've always been the type of person who eats two, maybe three times per day and 6 meals just sounds incredibly demanding. I'm just afraid I will have to give up this lifestyle and make compromises I don't want to make. But on the other hand I do want to do what is best for my baby. - Which I think that this diet is, but having gestational diabetes might force me to make some changes. I can't imagine arguing with my gyno doctor or an dietitian about proper human diet (see my first paragraph).

I would love it if someone would have some sort of positive experience on this front. I've checked a couple of posts for pregnant women on this forum but they are hard to find :)
Fuzzy
 
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Re: pregnant and worried

Postby PJK » Thu Aug 23, 2018 12:51 pm

I am neither a woman nor pregnant, but how about waiting for your test results?

I am a father, so understand pre-natal anxiety. But you are putting the cart a good mile before the horse.

What if your test results are fine? Won't you then feel silly for worrying about this - especially when you probably have at least a thousand other things to worry about!

If I haven't persuaded you, then at search this site for keywords including "pregnant." You'll get some good results, including these 2 videos:

https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/educ ... -children/
https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/educ ... pregnancy/
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Re: pregnant and worried

Postby Plumerias » Thu Aug 23, 2018 2:10 pm

Congratulations. When Lyndzie's not busy with a newborn and two others, she'll chime in. In the meantime, take a deep breath and just read. viewtopic.php?f=52&t=54096
I know there are others, but I'm at a loss as to names.
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Re: pregnant and worried

Postby Ltldogg » Thu Aug 23, 2018 3:17 pm

Hi Fuzzy,

Dr. McDougall has decades and decades of clinical experience backed by scientific studies and proof. I would follow his advice, which you can read and view here:

https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/educ ... -children/
https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2011nl ... gnancy.pdf
https://www.drmcdougall.com/newsletter/ ... ril97.html
https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/educ ... -children/
https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/educ ... pregnancy/

Best wishes,
Scott
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Re: pregnant and worried

Postby Lyndzie » Thu Aug 23, 2018 8:24 pm

Hi Fuzzy.

CONGRATULATIONS! I just got to go through the emotional roller coaster of pregnancy. There are never ending things to worry about. Fortunately, since this was my third pregnancy, I had previous experience to fall back on.

Guess what - you are doing great. Perfection is not required. Whenever I was questioned about my diet, I simply stated that I was working with a dietician and people would back off.

You don't have to take the glucose challenge test. Everything that they tell you is mandatory is actually optional. Medical professionals are simply service providers, and you can decline any test or procedure they recommend. I'm notorious for "forgetting" to set appointments for that kind of stuff, or calling and cancelling. That being said, I think you'll pass. Also, if you have gestational diabetes, you probably want to address that because it can cause complications for you and baby.

Should you decide to take the test, if for some reason you don't pass, you get a follow up test that is more in depth to confirm the diagnosis. Also, you could get a glucometer and test yourself at home in advance of the test to get an idea of how you are doing, but, again, less than 1 in 10 pregnant women have gestational diabetes, and it's linked to obesity. You stated that you were a healthy weight to start, so unless something crazy has happened in the last four months, you're fine.

My midwife had me do a week of food journal and fasting blood sugar in place of the glucose challenge test. It was interesting to see how food choices impacted my blood sugar. As long as I ate on plan, my blood sugar was fine, but if I ate crap I was borderline.

To prepare for the lest, I would suggest having a really good 5+ days on plan. Keeping the fats low (absolutely no oil or animals, limited rich foods) can really help, since intramyocellular lipids (fat in the cells) causes the insulin resistance, which results in the higher blood sugar.

The diet to treat type 2 diabetes is the same as gestational diabetes, so if for some reason you did get the diagnosis, you would just follow the maximum weight loss diet and everything would be fine. At that point I would recommend booking a call with Jeff to make sure your diet is on point. Or, there is a dietician that works at PCRM who specializes in plant-based pregnancies who would be knowledgeable.

If you have have any questions, feel free to send me a PM. I'm on the forums all the time right now while I nurse the baby (she's two months tomorrow!).

Also, here is my list of pregnancy and children related links. Nothing relating specifically to gestational diabetes, though, they are worth a read.

McDougall Links re: Kids

Pregnancy and Children
https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/educ ... -children/

McDougall Diet and Pregnancy
https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2011nl ... gnancy.htm

Best Formula?
https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2011nl/mar/fav5.htm

What do you feed children?
https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2012nl ... ildren.htm

Heather’s Kid-friendly Dinners
https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2013nl/jan/recipes.pdf

More of Heather’s Kid-friendly Recipes
https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2013nl/mar/recipes.pdf

Kid-friendly Snack Ideas
https://www.drmcdougall.com/2018/06/04/ ... d-spreads/

Webinar: Healthy School Lunches for Kids
https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/educ ... -08-25-16/
Lindsey
My food journal: Adventures in Eating
My pregnancy journal: Maybe a Baby 2017
www.lindseyhead.coach
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Re: pregnant and worried

Postby Fuzzy » Wed Aug 29, 2018 2:01 am

Thank you everyone, you gave me a lot of info. :mrgreen: Will post back when I get through it!!
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Re: pregnant and worried

Postby Fuzzy » Fri Sep 14, 2018 8:21 am

Hello, everyone, all of the info that you gave me still haven’t really sunken in. I still wanted to give a bit of an update and explain a couple of things.

@PJK You are of course right. I’m an anxious type of person anyway and as expected I am worried about my unborn child and pregnancy in general. I guess I’m not really as much worried about the test as the option, that maybe this diet at this point of my life is maybe not the best idea. I just never trust something or someone a 100% so occasionally that kind of trickles through. There is, as you have said, a lot of things to worry about. But on the other hand, other than not drinking alcohol, not taking drugs, caffeine, staying reasonably active and eating healthy there is not much you can do. From what I’ve read pregnancy has a lot to do with coincidence (or fate), genetics (mother & fetus) and maybe general lifestyle (going years back). Of course there are all sorts of products and ideas that people are trying to sell pregnant women, preying on their fear and best wishes, but a lot of them have no or only limited effect. I don’t think there is a lot that we can control really. Except the food. You can at least control what you put in your mouth. And I guess just the idea of someone taking this away from me bothers and scares me.

@Plumerias Thank you, this diary is truly great!
@Ltldogg Thank you Scott, need to re-watch these a couple times more.

@Lyndzie You are right, I don’t have to take the glucose test. But like you said, if I’m not healthy and it can be managed it makes sense that I take the test. Nuchal translucency for example is another type of test, where I can understand, why some women would want to skip it. It’s not really about management or a cure with this type of tests.

I have the test next week. And no I’m not overweight and at the moment I am gaining weight according to McDougall charts/expectations. I have far less appetite even now, being 5.5 months pregnant but that’s another topic.(Is that normal??)

I am worried because 4/5 of my friends basically failed this glucose test. None of them were obese or even overweight. They might be the type of people we call “skinny fat” and none of them are vegan/vegetarian or following the McDougall diet. But in general all of them were and are fit, healthy women. So I’m not sure what’s going on. When I was looking in our “expat” chat group/forum the information about how this test is done, there were even 2 women who actually lost weight during pregnancy and got diagnosed with GD. Both normal weight before the pregnancy. So I’m not sure if GD really has a lot to do with women’s weight, compared to type 2 diabetes. Of course all of these women can be exception to the rule.

I will definitely follow your advice about keeping the diet perfect for 5+ days. Today is Friday and weekends are a dangerous zone for me because I have to cook all meals for my husband as well and I’m running around a lot. Last week I followed the McDougall diet without fail, well except one croissant that attacked me in the alley :\ :angry: :ninja: :wasted: . Thank you too for all of the great links. It really calms me down to see all of these suggestions for children’s meals.

Just a general thinking/observation. In my native country the glucose test actually changed a bit in the last 10 years. First it was that women had to consume 50g of glucose in water and after one hour if the blood sugar was above 7.8 mmol/L the test was positive for gestational diabetes. Now they do like this 2 part tests and I think it’s the same in Switzerland where we currently live. Now it’s 75g of glucose in water and then after one hour the sugar lvls have to be bellow 10.0 and after two hours below 8.5. (In both cases the blood sugar when fasting should be below 5.1.) And at least in Slovenia with this kind of changes a lot more women are now diagnosed with GD. I just find it interesting. For a long time, I thought diabetes is something that you can test and define in a definite way so to speak. But it’s all about measurement and parameters and where you put the line between good and bad. I find it kind of strange still. Like there is no objectivity really, I don't know.
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Re: pregnant and worried

Postby Lyndzie » Fri Sep 21, 2018 10:21 am

Fuzzy, how did the test go?
Lindsey
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My pregnancy journal: Maybe a Baby 2017
www.lindseyhead.coach
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Re: pregnant and worried

Postby Fuzzy » Sat Sep 22, 2018 1:23 am

Still waiting for the results :? . Thank you so much for thinking of me! :) :) The first out of three was supposedly perfect. For the other two they will let me know next week, when I go for my gyno visit.
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Re: pregnant and worried

Postby Fuzzy » Wed Sep 26, 2018 3:10 am

Hi everyone and Lyndzie specifically :D ;-) ;-)

The glucose test was fine and my little baby-to-be is growing. That's the good news.

The not so good news is that my iron levels are low. Nothing terrible yet, but I got the iron tablets now on top of multivitamins I am already taking and which include iron already. I really feel bad, because I guess that means I'm really doing something wrong. I must admit I don't eat a lot of lettuce or greens. I was thinking that vegetables are created equal and that it doesn't really matter. Now I'm in this funny position. If it were up to me and if it were only concerning me, I would try to eat more greens for a couple of weeks and then check the levels one more time. But my doctor wasn't really excited about this idea. And I don't want to lie to her and say that I'm taking the pills if I'm not. Plus I am worried for my kid. So I guess I'll take the tablets for 4 weeks and up the greens but then I still won't know if the greens would have been enough. Any thoughts?

Second thing is that she recommended maternity compression stockings since my veins are already very visible. But the thing is my skin tone is very light. So as far as I can remember my veins were very visible since childhood. But I don't have any pain/discomfort in my legs, I don't feel like my legs are swelling up, I still feel great and I'm kind of nervous about making changes. Not sure if the stockings can actually hurt the bloodflow :? : Darn I hate to make decisions but I better get used to it right?
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Re: pregnant and worried

Postby Lyndzie » Wed Sep 26, 2018 6:13 am

Yay on your glucose test! You are doing excellent.

Here is my two cents:

My iron has been low all three if my pregnancies. Maternal blood volume dramatically increases, which leads to higher iron needs. This past pregnancy I had a phone call with Jeff and got my iron turned around with diet. Here is some relevant posts about that: viewtopic.php?f=52&t=54096&p=577188&hilit=Iron#p577188. I did end up taking the iron supplement towards the end of pregnancy (because I wasn’t eating my beans and greens like I should), but quit right before my due date because it gave me tummy troubles and I didn’t want to deal with that during delivery.

The concern with low iron isn’t for the developing fetus as much as the mother. Low iron is linked to poor maternal outcomes at birth. Your baby is just fine, and you are everything your baby needs to thrive. Nature is miraculous, and you are completely capable of growing your perfect baby. Is there always room of improvement? Sure, but you already do the things that have the most impact, like eating fruits and veggies, and avoiding smoking and alcohol. Just needing a little more iron is totally doable.

As far as compression stockings, I thought they were for edema and varicose veins. Those are things you can self diagnose. I had a couple veins that were a little more noticible during pregnancy, but they went back to normal after delivery. You can try the stockings and see if you like them, it won’t hurt anything.

The most important thing to remember when pregnant is that humans have had babies forever, mostly without doctors and supplements and everything else, and everything worked out. You are perfect. You are exactly what your baby needs. You take better care of yourself than probably anyone else you know. You are enough. Keep rocking it!
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Re: pregnant and worried

Postby Fuzzy » Wed Sep 26, 2018 8:30 am

Dear Lyndzie, thank you thank you so much for this fast and positive response!! Your post just made me all warm and fuzzy, that's exactly what I needed to hear.

I must admit I only flickered through your journal, but now it's definitely on my thorough-reading list! I already see we have a lot of things in common.

So thank you again, very very much! At least I can send a couple of hearts&well wishes your way. Take care!!
Fuzzy
 
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Re: pregnant and worried

Postby Fuzzy » Wed Oct 17, 2018 10:25 am

I'm at 30 weeks!! Next appointment is in about two weeks but everything looks ok. I'm still kind of scared when I think about how tiny my baby is. Just hold on little one, I'm perfectly happy with you staying over the due date :-D . It will be winter when you come out so no need to hurry out into the cold weather :D

Iron pills that I'm taking haven't caused any problems. No constipation, stomach pain or anything like that. In two weeks we will know if they actually work, if not, they've already threatened me with intravenous iron. But I don't think it will come to that. I've taken iron supplements before as a teen, due to heavy periods and they did the trick.

Lately my husband and I both sleep a lot but still wake up sleepy and tired. Maybe it's just because the weather is changing. Or maybe we just need to stop eating dinner right before bedtime, but that's not a new bad habit for us. My husband is very active so if he doesn't eat right before bedtime, he gets so hungry during the night that he actually wakes up and can't go back to sleep. And then he has to get up and nibble on some nuts in the middle of the night :-P . My sweet little hamster. But yeah I could definitely start eating 2 hours before the bedtime.

What is interesting is the weight change. I already feel and look huge. I started at 5.5 and 127 pounds. Now I'm at about 136 pounds. So 9 pound gain but I guess the biggest growth spurt still awaits. I've noticed that my wedding ring is looser and so are my glasses. I feel great I just don't have any interest in food of any kind. Even stuff that are totally not in the McDougall "playing field" sound nice in theory, but when I actually get them on a plate, I'm like meh, no thank you. Not really a problem apart from the people around me. Who are telling me, that I'm not eating enough, and that I should eat for two, definitely more protein ... you know how it goes. It just made me antisocial. In contrast to what dr. McD is saying, it's only food! I hate that people are so obsessed with it sometimes. Luckily I talked to my mum and she said that with my brother she only gained 13 pounds during the whole pregnancy. And my brother had 9 pounds at birth and was very healthy. So at least I've got this to defend myself.
Thank you for reading.
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Re: pregnant and worried

Postby Lyndzie » Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:19 pm

Well done! I’ve known a few people to only gain about 15 pounds the whole pregnancy. Isn’t it amazing how big you can feel? Good news is that it goes away relatively quickly. That is amazing that your mom had such a big baby! When I was worried about having a big baby, my midwife reassured me that “fat squishes,” haha. She was right!

I’m so impressed with your perseverance and dedication to doing what you know is best for you and your baby. You are almost there! It’ll be a great winter to snuggle a baby and wear warm sweaters. Enjoy it!!
Lindsey
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Re: pregnant and worried

Postby Fuzzy » Wed Oct 31, 2018 10:30 am

Hi everyone, I had the check up today. All is good. So far my baby is right in the middle of every chart. I will gladly follow Ryan Reynolds footsteps in saying that my baby is perfectly average in every way :D :D .She is kicking me like crazy the last couple of days but that's maybe because I'm home a bit more (terrible weather) and I don't provide enough rocking movements :-D .
Thank you Lyndzie for your kind words! It's so nice to have someone so optimistic and positive in my life.

But of course there is always something to gnaw on. Like today my gynecologist recommended me to get a flu shot. That she already had a lady in her practice who almost died because she got sick with flu. That they were basically fighting for her life for a couple of weeks in the hospital. I'm just a bit skeptical still, I can't help it. I don't have a problem with vaccines against polio, whooping cough, rubella and stuff like this. But the vaccination against flu is still quite new and does not work for the new type of flu ... I don't know. I tried to figure out what I'm afraid of. Maybe:
1. I get vaccinated and my baby is born and it has such and such problem that either shows at birth or years later. Then I'll feel bad and keep thinking, is it because of the flu shot? Remember the time when I was on the fence whether I should get it or not ... well I've made the wrong decision. And it was my choice and my choice alone.
2. Getting vaccinated and still getting "this year's" type of flu. Double trouble.
3. I don't get vaccinated and I get the flu which might have been prevented with the shot. I have high fever for a couple of days that I try to regulate with medicine but the damage is done. When my baby is born or later it has such and such problem ... Plus when I go to the doctor and they say: Oh btw you've got the flu. Were you not informed that it is wise to get the flu shot during pregnancy? Oh you were? But you decided against the opinion of people who worked in this field for years, studied and have worked with a lot of pregnant women? But you say making a quick internet search and reading a bunch of horror stories changed your mind. I see... If die because of the flu, no second thoughts, that's the upside :| .

Does it make me really childish if I just want a doctor who would take at least a couple of decisions off my hands? Just tell me, "It's important that you do this." Don't talk to me about recommendations, just say it has to be done. That you won't bind me to a chair and vaccinate me, but that it should be done.
Fuzzy
 
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