Nutritionist Aveen Bannon feels that larger babies are the result of women having a healthier diet during pregnancy. A healthier diet helps babies to be healthier later on. Bannon wants women to focus on having larger babies through a healthy diet.
“What women should be aiming for is anything above 8lb,” she said.
“From a health perspective, when the first weight is above this it means that the baby will be less likely to have problems with obesity, heart disease, diabetes or any of these conditions later on in life.
“The most important time of nutrition in our lives is pregnancy and in the first two years — the baby doesn’t have to catch up on the growth and put on weight in the process.”
According to Bannon, babies that are born a good size do not have to “catch up” on gaining weight after birth. And Bannon has a personal stake in this, having given birth to a 9lb 7oz baby herself. Big babies, she says, are the result of a healthy pregnancy diet. Rather than the “eating for two” diet myth, Bannon says just eating a well-rounded diet full of vitamins and nutrients will help a baby to grow to a larger size.
Though, Bannon admits that too big a baby may be a bad thing.
“From a woman’s physical point of view, you don’t want them to be too big,” she said.
– Summer, staff writer
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I don’t think women necessarily want a smaller baby to make birth easier. Perhaps more information about the type of birth would lead to a busting of this myth that big babies are harder to birth? I’ve had 2 hospital births, the easiest one was the less-drugged one, pushing out a 9lb2oz baby with only grazing (no stitches required). The other one was 7lb9oz and as I was heavily drugged I “needed” a rather brutal episiotomy. My homebirth waterbaby was 8lb 3oz and was by far the easiest and least painful birth – because I moved and danced with the contractions, then followed my body when transition hit, then allowed my body to primally push my baby out.
Easy births happen when it’s unhindered, undrugged, and the birthing goddess feels safe and comfortable and loved and protected.