Inflammed placentas put baby’s at risk, because the feeding line is compromised. During pregnancy, fighting this fire, is your number one priority

You’re no stranger to a protruding belly, you’ve been battling the bulge, for what feels like forever. 511

Now you’re pregnant.

The bulge is REALLY bulging. Your big belly is transforming into a bulge of gigantean proportions, skinny women develop a beach ball, you’re developing a pilates ball.

Size obsessions

Everyone in your medical team, is obsessing about your size. Weighing and measuring and murmuring……

And, quite frankly, you’re a little sick of it.

You get it, being a pregnant women who is heavier than you should be, makes your pregnancy risky.

It’s not deliberate

It’s not like you haven’t tried to fix the weight issues.

For years you’ve done the EAT LESS and MOVE MORE. You’ve only had limited success with this strategy.

And right now, STARVING is not a good strategy – your baby is depending on YOU for food.

Plus MOVING MORE………….. who are they kidding ? You’ve got a belly full of baby and adipose tissue. You’ve got your hands full moving, never mind moving MORE.

Adipose tissue is MORE

I’m not sure what you imagine adipose tissue to be.

I think we’ve been trained to see it, as a bunch of fat cells, all full of fat, perched on top of your stomach. But, if truth be told, adipose tissue is made up of a lot more than fat cells.

Adipose tissue is chock full of immune cells.

Specifically macrophages, these are the guys that are your body’s soldiers. And there presence is significant, actually, they are probably the problem, the fat cells are innocent bystanders.

You see, obesity is not just a problem of excess calories, if you’re overweight, you have a low grade inflammatory response, going on in your body. This inflammatory response is the real reason being fat is unhealthy.

Now, some scientist think, being fat, causes the inflammation, while others think the inflammation makes you fat. I subscribe to the idea that inflammation makes you fat. And being fat, keeps you fat and inflamed. Eish !

So why does it matter ?

Right now, you’re not the only one who is inflamed.

So is your placenta.

Placentas are on fire

This is what researchers from Western Reserve University, discovered.

They took blood and placental samples from 35 women, 20 were considered to be obese, the rest had normal weights.   The samples were collected when the women were giving birth to their baby – all the women had chosen to have a c-section i.e. they were undergoing an elective caesarean. Guess they didn’t get the memo, that this decision, predisposes their baby to a life time of “battling the buldge”.

The team assessed the level of inflammation in the samples, using several techniques.

They discovered, the fatter ladies had two to three times more macrophages on high alert in their placentas.

Inflammation is risky

Being inflamed is a health risk.

• Inflammed joints cause the aches and pains of arthritis.
• Inflammed brains cause neurodegenerative diseases and depression
• Inflammed placentas……………………

Put babies at risk, because their feeding line is compromised and so is the integrity of their placental barrier.

This is why, you being overweight is an issue.

Fight the fire not the fat

Losing weight is going to help you fight the fire. But, right now, in the middle of your pregnancy, this should not be your focus. Your focus should be to fight the fire.

How can you do this ?

Fire fighters typically use a two prong approach.

They dowse the flames and cut off the fuel supply.

You need to do the same.

You can dowse the flames, through the judicious use of anti-oxidants and can cut off the fuel supply, by minimizing your exposure to inflammatory foods and behaviours.

Need some help ?   Our Tame your Sugar Gremlin programme, uses a little CANDY FLOSS, to put fires out, click here to learn more.

Further reading

If you are an expectant Mom or know someone that is – invite them to participate, so they can create Better Body Chemistry during their pregnancy and raise a HAPPY HEALTHY little one.