Anorexia Among Pregnant Women (Pregorexia) Rises In Canada

Poedy Pencil Princess via Etsy.com

Anorexia, a mental illness which is the abnormal obsession
of staying thin and not gaining weight is deadly. Psychological and social
factors can both contribute to the eating disorder. Another documented eating disorder
which has been mentioned on the Victorian – Recovery blog has received the
attention of the health community in the past few years. Pregorexia, is not a
technical term for a medical diagnosis but the stigma is the same for women who
are carrying babies and are trying to stay thin.

Pregorexia has the same basic symptoms and risk factors as
anorexia. The only difficulty is that there is another life involved that
depends upon the mother’s nutritional and food intake. According to a CBS News
report in August 2008, pregnant moms should expect to gain between 25 to 35
pounds by the time the pregnancy comes to term after nine months. Over the
years popular celebrity’s like Angelina Jolie, Kate Hudson, Nicole Richie,
Katie Holmes and Jessica Simpson have had babies and lost weight rapidly after
giving birth. Unlike the majority of the public, celebrities can afford childcare
and personal trainers to simply focus on losing weight, but the headlines of
magazines praising celebrities for losing so fast post pregnancy may contribute
to the vast rise in disordered eating among pregnant women.

Experts say it’s difficult to determine how common eating
disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are among pregnant women because those
types of statistics are rarely shared due to privacy concerns. However, according
to a 2007-2009 Health Canada survey, 6% of Canadian women between six and 79
years old reported suffering from at least one form of eating disorder. In
2009-2010, there were 5,282 hospitalizations related to eating disorders, more
than 90% of the patients were women. Some experts believe unrealistic body
images in the media and a celebrity culture have led more women to try to stay
thin during pregnancy so they can shed their weight immediately after
childbirth.

“Before, pregnancy might have been seen as an opportunity to
relax into one’s body and to experience one’s body as it naturally grows,” said
Merryl Bear, the director of the non-profit National Eating Disorder
Information Centre in Toronto, Canada.

“But there are more challenges to a pregnant woman’s
self-perception that are exacerbated by the images and the stories of
celebrities who get pregnant, have their babies, and throughout the process just
have their pre-pregnancy body with a bump,” she said.

Dr. Blake Woodside, head of Canada’s largest eating
disorders treatment program at Toronto General Hospital, said cases of pregorexia
used to be rare.

Woodside says, “Our society has become fatophobic and fat
discriminatory,  even when it relates to

Doctors say starving pregnant women are more likely to
develop a number of health problems as are their babies. The journal Canadian
Family Physician warns that women who are anorexic during pregnancy have babies
with lower Apgar scores and lower birth weights. The Apgar score assesses the
general physical condition of a newborn. Other complications associated with
pregorexia include depression, anemia, hypertension, miscarriage and premature
labor.

*Note: Pregorexia is an eating disorder that
occurs during pregnancy. Equal to other eating disorders the issues surrounding
eating disorders do not simply involve eating and an obsession with weight, often
other issues that go with it. An eating disorder is not about vanity. Mothers
suffering from an eating disorder most likely have prior psychological issues
that were triggered by the emotional changes that come with pregnancy. Pregorexia
is  their way of coping.