Re: Pregnant celebrities 'too posh to push'; New mothers choose surgical delivery
From: Anna Meenan, MD (annam@uic.edu)
Mon Feb 10 20:19:16 2003
I got back into my size 10 jeans 1 week after having my first baby (10
lb vaginally at 41 wks gestation). Took them right back off though
(episiotomy stitches). Still wear a size ten 19 years and 2 more kids
later, but only because a size 10 now is bigger than a size 10 was 19 yr
ago. No surgery, no personal trainers, no special exercises.
--
Anna Meenan, MD
At Mon, 10 Feb 2003, Daniel R. Hersh, M.D. wrote:
>
>Pregnant celebrities 'too posh to push'
>New mothers choose surgical delivery in bid to get fit and toned
>Anne Marie Owens
>National Post
>Monday, February 10, 2003
>If Claudia Schiffer and Elle Macpherson are true to their supermodel
>trade, they will likely be returned to their whittled forms within weeks
>after giving birth, flashing their toned bodies in public before their
>new
>sons are even a month old.
>These new mothers, who both gave birth in the past two weeks, are the
>latest in a long list of models and actresses who are beginning to
>superimpose their impossible body image standards on pregnancy.
>The pictures in tabloids and glossy magazines show a stream of
>celebrities
>slimmed down and toned within mere months of giving birth -- the result
>of
>rigid pilates routines, personal trainers, strict diets and even, it is
>rumoured, babies delivered about a month early by Caesarean section.
>With their unbelievably flat stomachs, their scanty post-pregnancy
>fashions, and their toned physiques, it should come as no surprise that
>these celebrity mothers operate under a different set of rules than most
>women.
>"The supermom syndrome has expanded from working and having kids, to
>working and having kids and having a body like this," said Dr. Jan
>Christilaw, a Vancouver obstetrician-gynecologist and head of
>specialized
>women's health at B.C. Women's Hospital.
>"It is not attainable in most women's lives -- nor should it be."
>She joins other medical experts in their condemnation of this new
>celebrity standard of post-pregnancy shape.
>"Women's bodies change when they have a baby. The fat distribution
>changes. It's functional and, I think, it's beautiful. We should be
>celebrating the changes that women's bodies are going through," said Dr.
>Christilaw. "The main problem I have is that this creates an atmosphere
>of
>frustration for women."
>She said the speedy return to pre-pregnancy form "usually means that
>you've manipulated your body in ways that are not very healthy."
>There have always been rumours that some celebrities, in their desire to
>keep a streamlined form, push for an early C-section as a way of
>avoiding
>the final month of major abdominal stretching.
>It is the extreme of what some tabloids have dubbed the "too posh to
>push"
>movement, whereby wealthy and simply busy mothers eschew the haphazard
>nature of a natural birth for the precision of a surgical delivery.
>Those rumours abounded earlier this month, when Ms. Schiffer, the
>German-born supermodel, had her son delivered a few weeks early by
>Caesarean because of risks associated with an earlier accident involving
>her foot.
>Among the celebrities who have delivered their babies by C-sections:
>Catherine Zeta Jones, Madonna, Céline Dion and Victoria Beckham, the
>former Posh Spice and one of the original namesakes behind "too posh to
>push."
>Dr. Jennifer Blake, obstetrician and gynecologist in chief at Toronto's
>Sunnybrook & Women's College Health Sciences Centre, says these
>flat-stomached pictures of new celebrity mothers strain credulity.
>"I have never seen anybody with a flat stomach after pregnancy --
>never,"
>she said. "There is a stretching of the abdominal wall that occurs in
>pregnancy. It is physiological. It is necessary."
>She said although it is possible for some very tall and thin women, the
>typical model physique, to carry their pregnancy more upwards than
>outwards, she suspects these celebrities look so thin due to clever
>clothing choices, flattening undergarments and even digital manipulation
>of their photographed images.
>"I am skeptical really," said Dr. Blake. "Furthermore, I would be really
>concerned if women actually thought this was the standard to be
>achieved.
>The most important thing for a woman who is pregnant or has just had a
>baby is her health and the health of her baby. A flat stomach should be
>the last thing on her mind."
>Wendy Burgoyne, a health promotion consultant with Ontario's Best Start
>program, said it can actually be dangerous for women to lose weight too
>quickly after pregnancy. "There is a reason why that weight typically
>goes
>off slowly and it is to support breast-feeding," she said.
>"Women shouldn't be worrying about losing weight, particularly at a
>period
>of time when you aren't getting much sleep, you're tired and not in the
>best condition. Losing weight can be pretty stressful.
>"This is not something you should be thinking about right after having a
>baby."
>Most celebrity mothers, when asked how they managed to transform their
>postpartum bodies so speedily, wax on about the merits of a good diet
>and
>exercise regime.
>Pilates and yoga seem to be the toning methods of choice for the likes
>of
>Sarah Jessica Parker, Cindy Crawford and Elizabeth Hurley, although the
>pace would have to be intense to bring about the kind of results these
>stars get in a matter of months.
>Sascha Ferguson, owner of Absolution, a Los Angeles gym favoured by the
>celebrity set, maintains it is entirely possible for women who are
>absolutely dedicated to exercise to escape without many of the usual
>ravages of pregnancy. "These celebrities are just hard workers when it
>comes to their bodies."
>aowens@nationalpost.com
>
>--
>Daniel R. Hersh, M.D. FACOG
>Private Practice, Las Vegas, NV
>
