I was utterly shocked when I first learned of this term and could not believe that some pregnant women were willing to endanger the health of their unborn infants as well as their own health in an effort to avoid weight gain. Pregorexia is a psychological condition in which a woman’s obsession with being thin persists during pregnancy. It has the same features that anorexia does, with the stark exception the fact that a developing fetus is also endangered by the restriction in calories and nutrients.

About half of pregnant women will only eat certain foods which they have determined to be thin figure-friendly, while about one-fifth of pregnant women will actively restrict caloric intake. A small percentage of pregnant women will engage in excessive exercise, induce vomiting or take laxatives in an effort to rid themselves of ingested calories. Other pregnant women will binge, which exposes the infant to widely varying levels of nutrients. These erratic behaviors increase the risk of gestational diabetes, post-partum depression, c-section, miscarriage, stillbirth, prematurity, low birth weight and breech delivery, yet these risks fail to deter many women from engaging in them.

More than half of women end up feeling more insecure about their bodies while they are pregnant, and many will harbor such intense fear of gaining weight while pregnant that they will starve themselves or employ some of the methods mentioned earlier. Even breastfeeding behaviors may fall prey to the psychological mechanism of restricting calories. Some women may resort to breastfeeding or pumping for the sole reason of shedding calories, an activity known as “pump purging”.
Pregnant women need to ingest an additional 10% more calories per day, which usually amounts to about 300 extra calories per day. As for ideal weight gain during pregnancy, women of normal weight should expect to gain between 25 to 35 pounds. Women who are overweight should aim for a pregnancy weight gain of 15 to 25 pounds, while obese women should only gain between 11 to 20 pounds.

The number one most important concern a woman should have while she is pregnant is the health of her unborn baby.