After I had my seminar, my boyfriend and I talked about the surgery and what it would mean for our future. We plan on getting married within the next few years and have children shortly after that. Since I have decided to try to get this surgery done before all that happens, it has put our plans on hold. I want to wait a bit to get engaged (I don’t want to have to resize my ring 40 times) and, I have to wait at least 18 months to get pregnant after my surgery.
Now, being 27, I wanted to start having children within the next year or two. I really didn’t want to wait until after I was 30. I grew up with young parents, and I always wanted to be a young mother. Circumstance has put me in a different place, and I wasn’t ready to have children, nor was my partner. We had a lot of financial issues, so we put off getting married and having kids until we were a little more stable. I know now a days it isn’t a big deal having kids in your 30’s. In fact, most people wait until now to have kids. The average age in America for woman to have children is 28. So I am starting to get over the fact that I will be 30 by the time I have my first child.
But as my boyfriend and I were having this discussion about my surgery, he asked me, “Will the baby be safe after the surgery? Will it get enough nutrients.”
My automatic answer was, “Yes, that’s why they make you wait 18 months.”
But it got me thinking a bit. I will need to increase my calorie intake/nutrient intake when I get pregnant, but I won’t be able to eat more like normal pregnant woman would. So how am I gonna do that?
I started doing a little research, and I came across a great website:
http://www.babymed.com/pregnancy-after-gastric-bypass-surgery
I got information from other websites geared more toward bariatric patients, but this one was more for babies, which I thought would be better. I don’t really need to know what effect it will have on me, but I want to know about my baby. It gave me a lot of really great information.
Basically most of the websites said, you just have to take more nutrients, eat more nutritious food, and to make sure that you aren’t “dieting” while pregnant. You may still lose weight while you are pregnant, but that is just because you are still eating less. As long as you are eating that nutritious food, you should be fine. Also, they say you should be taking more prenatal supplements then a normal pregnant woman, because there is a small malabsorption that occurs after the surgery that you need to make up for.
Surprisingly, the other thing all the websites said was that I have a high risk of having to have a c-section. Now, I have come to terms with possibly having to have a c-section just because my boyfriend is 6’5, and he was 10 lbs when he was born and 24 inches long. That is a big baby. But I find this very surprising, especially because they don’t have a reason WHY bariatric surgery patients are more prone to c-sections. (If anyone has anymore information about this, i’d love to know.)
But the biggest thing for me is that I am going to be so much healthier when I carry my baby. I won’t be as much of a risk for gestational diabetes or preeclampsia. My child has less of a chance of becoming obese, and may have a higher IQ since my blood pressure won’t put stress on the baby. (I watched a documentary on how woman who have higher blood pressure or who stress out during their pregnancy tend to have children with lower IQ’s, have a lower development and have a higher risk of poor behavior. )
Based on the risks and rewards of all this, I think that it is a better idea to wait until after my surgery to have children. I think this decision will give my children a healthier life and increase their success of not being obese. Ultimately, this is my goal, for my children to be able to break this cycle.
Now, being 27, I wanted to start having children within the next year or two. I really didn’t want to wait until after I was 30. I grew up with young parents, and I always wanted to be a young mother. Circumstance has put me in a different place, and I wasn’t ready to have children, nor was my partner. We had a lot of financial issues, so we put off getting married and having kids until we were a little more stable. I know now a days it isn’t a big deal having kids in your 30’s. In fact, most people wait until now to have kids. The average age in America for woman to have children is 28. So I am starting to get over the fact that I will be 30 by the time I have my first child.
But as my boyfriend and I were having this discussion about my surgery, he asked me, “Will the baby be safe after the surgery? Will it get enough nutrients.”
My automatic answer was, “Yes, that’s why they make you wait 18 months.”
But it got me thinking a bit. I will need to increase my calorie intake/nutrient intake when I get pregnant, but I won’t be able to eat more like normal pregnant woman would. So how am I gonna do that?
I started doing a little research, and I came across a great website:
http://www.babymed.com/pregnancy-after-gastric-bypass-surgery
I got information from other websites geared more toward bariatric patients, but this one was more for babies, which I thought would be better. I don’t really need to know what effect it will have on me, but I want to know about my baby. It gave me a lot of really great information.
Basically most of the websites said, you just have to take more nutrients, eat more nutritious food, and to make sure that you aren’t “dieting” while pregnant. You may still lose weight while you are pregnant, but that is just because you are still eating less. As long as you are eating that nutritious food, you should be fine. Also, they say you should be taking more prenatal supplements then a normal pregnant woman, because there is a small malabsorption that occurs after the surgery that you need to make up for.
Surprisingly, the other thing all the websites said was that I have a high risk of having to have a c-section. Now, I have come to terms with possibly having to have a c-section just because my boyfriend is 6’5, and he was 10 lbs when he was born and 24 inches long. That is a big baby. But I find this very surprising, especially because they don’t have a reason WHY bariatric surgery patients are more prone to c-sections. (If anyone has anymore information about this, i’d love to know.)
But the biggest thing for me is that I am going to be so much healthier when I carry my baby. I won’t be as much of a risk for gestational diabetes or preeclampsia. My child has less of a chance of becoming obese, and may have a higher IQ since my blood pressure won’t put stress on the baby. (I watched a documentary on how woman who have higher blood pressure or who stress out during their pregnancy tend to have children with lower IQ’s, have a lower development and have a higher risk of poor behavior. )
Based on the risks and rewards of all this, I think that it is a better idea to wait until after my surgery to have children. I think this decision will give my children a healthier life and increase their success of not being obese. Ultimately, this is my goal, for my children to be able to break this cycle.
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