How to Prepare Your Body for Pregnancy as a Plus-Size Woman

Are you a wondering how you can prepare for pregnancy as a plus-size woman? 

Along with the normal range of feelings that any woman feels during this time (excitement, fear, anxiety, curiosity, impatience), you may also have other thoughts running through your head because of your body. 

“Am I healthy enough to carry a baby?”

“Am I at risk of more complications due to my size?”

“Will my baby bump be visible?”

“How do I prepare for pregnancy as a plus-size woman?”

“Do I need to lose weight before I can get pregnant?

As a plus size woman, it’s easy to feel a lot of uncertainty about what getting pregnant will entail. I am very familiar with this. 

Being plus-size isn’t all bad- despite what many people might think, I truly do love and appreciate my body. Yeah, there might be days where I wish my tummy was a little smaller or days I get frustrated when I can’t find a cute pair of jeans in my size, but overall, I am grateful for my body and what it can do. 

But when it comes to the idea of being pregnant, I know there is more at stake than how I feel about my body visually. There is my health and the health of a baby to keep in mind. 

When I experienced a miscarriage last fall, I couldn’t help but wonder if my body was to blame. And while there is any number of things that could have caused my miscarriage (and it very likely was something completely unrelated and out of my control), I knew that this time around I wanted to be more prepared!

While being plus-size and having a healthy pregnancy is totally possible (and is done by many women), there is an increased risk of complications. BUT, with some extra care beforehand, we can help ourselves prepare for a healthy pregnancy!

I am currently in the process of doing all of the below things with the following goal(s) in mind: 

• Lose a little excess weight & build a healthier body
• Increase my strength and prepare my body for carrying a baby
• Rid my body of the bad stuff (toxins) and fill my body with the good stuff (vitamins & nutrients)

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1. First things first- come up with a plan.

Preparing for pregnancy as a plus-size woman takes some planning. Maybe you’re the kind of person who takes things as they come. If so, that’s totally fine. But if you’re anything like me, you tend to stick to things more if you have a plan in place ahead of time. 

Making a plan for this can be as simple as writing out what things you want to improve or focus on, how you’re going to do it, and a plan for doing those things. Mine looks a little like this: 

Goal: I want to get more fit and strengthen my muscles to prepare my body for holding a baby

How: Exercise at least 3x/week for at least 30 minutes per session. 

Spending a bit of time writing out what goals you have for your pre-pregnancy body can help you get a good head start on the process and set you up for success. 

2. Take prenatal vitamins

You might know that prenatal vitamins are important during pregnancy, but did you know they’re also extremely important before pregnancy? Taking prenatals helps your body get the nutrients it needs so that your baby’s development is healthy from conception. 

Do some research of your own to find out which prenatal is the best for you. After comparing a couple that I was considering, I ended up picking these Nature Made Prenatals. 

3. Get blood work done

When’s the last time you had blood work done? If it’s been a bit, now is the perfect time. Sure, you’ll likely get blood work done during pregnancy, but now is the perfect time because if it’ll give you a chance to address any conditions or issues you may have before getting pregnant. It’ll also help you go into pregnancy with peace of mind, knowing the status of your health. 

Blood work of course can uncover serious conditions, but it can also identify easily fixable things like vitamin deficiencies. Part of preparing for pregnancy as a plus-size woman is about catching things before they become issues!

4. Increase your water intake

Are you getting enough water? I saw it estimated somewhere that nearly half of all people are drinking well below the recommended daily intake of water. Are you a part of that half? 

Water intake is important for a variety of reasons, but honestly the biggest perk of it as a plus-size person is that it helped me shed a lot of water weight. Seriously. I was not drinking NEARLY enough water daily. There were some days I’d drink 64 oz, then sometimes I would go a couple days barely drinking a full glass. 

I decided one day to stop drinking coffee and sweet tea (my addiction), and to start replacing those with water, and I kid you not, I lost 10 lbs in a week. 

Now I am NOT recommending rapid weight loss and do not feel it is necessary or safe, but I am making the point that I had a lot of weight that my body was holding onto just because I was not drinking a healthy amount of water. 

Aside from losing the water weight, drinking more water will help you feel so much better! 

Here are some things that drinking a lot of water helps you with (all of which are important for a healthy pregnancy)

Water helps: 

• Flush toxins from your body
• Improve flexibility in your muscles
• Increase focus
• Boost your metabolism
• Skin be (and look) healthier
• Lower the risk of all kinds of diseases
• Your digestive system function properly
• Improve blood circulation
• Boost your energy level

Not sure how much water to drink? The recommended amount is now half of your body weight, but in ounces. So if you weigh 250 lbs, you should aim for 125 oz. of water per day. 

If you, like me, are not fond of plain water or have trouble drinking enough, I have a few recs: 

• Add some (healthy) flavor by tossing in fruit, or even veggies. 
• Drink it cold. For some reason it tastes better cold? 
• Get a cup that you like drinking water out of.
  • I recently decided to get a Stanley cup and I swear my water intake has drastically increased since getting it. I love drinking out of it, and it keeps my water cold, which is super important for me. You can get your own here.

5. Strengthen your body and get in the habit of being active 

Being active is an important part of pregnancy. It helps keep both you and the baby healthy and can help prevent a variety of complications. BUT, most doctors would advise against starting a new workout routine during pregnancy. Not to say you have to do the exact same amount of activity every day, but during pregnancy is probably not the time to start running 3 miles a day if running was not a part of your routine before!

So starting a workout routine BEFORE pregnancy is the perfect way to get your body used to moving regularly so that you can keep up the good habit once that stick turns pink.

Exercising can also help us shed any excess fat we have, which will only help us both get pregnant and have a healthy pregnancy. 

It’s said that even shedding 5% of your body weight can drastically improve your odds of conceiving and preventing a miscarriage. 5% may sound like a lot, but if you are 250 lbs, that equals 12.5 lbs of weight loss. And weight loss is never easy, but 12.5 lbs is an attainable goal for many of us. 

If you aren’t used to exercising, don’t worry about having an intense workout routine. Start where you are. The goal here is to get your body moving, not to push yourself too far. Try going to 10-15 minute walks a few times a week, then maybe add in some other movement or exercises when you’re ready. Yoga, swimming, and walking are all great low-impact exercises that can help you get your body in a healthier condition!

6. Cut out caffeine 

Caffeine can have an effect on your ability to get pregnant. And often with caffeine comes unnecessary sugar and calories (have you ever looked at the nutrition facts of a bottle of coffee creamer?). 

Cutting out caffeine is helping our bodies get in healthier shape for pregnancy. It is also preparing us for a (hopefully) quicker conception.

If you’re a coffee addict, I get that this can be a hard one (been there, girl). But preparing for pregnancy requires a wee bit of sacrifice so that we can be healthy for our future babies. If you’re having a hard time cutting out the coffee, try starting with a smaller amount (maybe one cup instead of your regular two), or getting the same drink but with decaf espresso instead.

7. Get better sleep 

Did you know that sleep affects fertility? So if you aren’t getting enough sleep, now’s the time to start! 

Getting better sleep now will help your odds of getting pregnant, and will set up better habits for when you are pregnant. 

Some ways to help yourself get better sleep: 

Set up a nighttime routine 

Make your bedroom the *coziest*

Avoid caffeine or sugar for several hours before bedtime

Have a consistent bed time

Stretch before bed

Journal before bed to get all of the thoughts out

8. Track your cycle

If you’re preparing to get pregnant, knowing your cycle is crucial. And if you are completely unaware of your cycle/ ovulation, then it can take a few months to figure out. If you are completely new to this and have a few months to figure things out, I highly recommend Natural Cycles. 

Natural Cycles is mostly known as a non-hormonal form of birth control, but I love it for the fact that it has my cycle allll mapped out for me, including my fertile days, period days, etc. 

Here’s how it works: You sign up for Natural Cycles, get a basal temperature thermometer, and then it’s simply a daily info gathering and tracking routine. Every morning as soon as you wake up, you take your temperature, type it into the app, and let it do its thing. The more data it collects, the most precise it gets with your cycle. 

I have used this for 3+ years now, originally as birth control, but now for planning pregnancy. In the ‘Plan pregnancy’ mode, it gives your fertile days, ranked from ‘Low Fertility’ to ‘Peak Fertility’, to tell you which days you are most likely to conceive. 

I am highly recommending this because I truly do love it, and I feel so much more prepared for getting pregnant by knowing exactly where I am in my cycle and knowing which days are best for conception. 

If you want to give Natural Cycles a shot, you can check it out here!

9. Get up to date on all doctor’s appointments and vaccines

In order to have a healthy pregnancy, it’s important to check in on your overall health. 

If you aren’t up to date, it’s crucial that you make any doctor’s appointments  necessary. Here are a few to get up to date on: 

• Annual check-up (primary care doctor)
• Dental Exam 
• Chiropractor visit/adjustment
• Yearly Gynecology Exam/Pap Smear
• All vaccinations (some vaccinations are not recommended for pregnant women, so best to get those before getting pregnant!)

10. Start eating a more well-balanced (not restrictive) diet

Part of our overall health of course includes what we are putting in our bodies. The importance of a healthy diet goes well beyond weight. Eating a healthy diet of whole foods is important so that our bodies are getting the nutrients we need to carry us and our babies through pregnancy. It’s also important for boosting our immune systems, ridding the body of toxins, helping our mental health, and setting us up with good habits for the future. 

If eating healthy is hard for you (hey, I get it), just start where you can. You don’t have to eat salad for every meal, but maybe commit to cutting out fast food? You don’t have to give up red meat entirely, but maybe try swapping out beef burgers for turkey burgers. Making small swaps is a great way to get healthy without feeling overwhelmed.

Once you’re ready to add more nutrition into your daily meals, I highly recommend bento box-type meals. This is a great way to add multiple different food groups into one meal, and they are so customizable that they can work for anyone. 

Create your own bento box with the steps below: 

And if you feel up to it, go ahead and start a pregnancy diet now! This is a great way to really get your body ready for pregnancy. MyPlate has great resources on creating a healthy diet while pregnant. 

11. Make self-care a priority!

This one is crucial! Preparing for pregnancy (and trying to get pregnant) are exciting times in your life, but they can also be stressful. The more stress we feel, the more stress is put on our bodies. 

And we are aiming for healthy bodies, healthy minds, healthy spirits. If you want to focus on all three of those, don’t leave self-care out of your routine. Preparing for pregnancy as a plus-size woman means putting yourself first a little more.

Make it a priority. 

Take more bubble baths. Listen to more podcasts. Dance more. Journal more. Read more books. Spend time being creative. Treat yourself. Whatever self care looks like to you, do it!

If you feel like you’re too busy for self-care, I wrote a blog post with lots of self-care ideas that are perfect for you. You can read it heeeeere!

That’s it (future) mama! If you are a plus-size gal who is hoping to get pregnant soon, I’d love to hear from you- what are your goals, what are your concerns, and what are you doing to prepare? (comment down below)

You are beautiful, capable, strong, and deserving of love (especially your own)!

I wish you the best of luck in your pregnancy journey!

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