Small People, Small Babies

[BlessedJess]

Small women can birth large babies in many situations. My grandma did it. Same size as me, 4'11" in height (at most, that is) and she had a big baby or two. I think she had one in the 8-9 pound range. Pygmy women have 9 pounders all the time, from what I have heard. And they are just small all around. I think that would be like a large or average sized women birthing a 15 pound baby. I'd be tall in a pygmy clan, most likely.

Anyway, so here we have this great diversity of people. Some very big. One very tall mama/husband in the US (in the news cycle a while back) had a homebirth with a 13lb baby, yes, vaginally!

But back to the little people. Mind you, my husband is only 6 inches taller. Very well proportioned and attractive. So he's not giving the children much incentive to be big. And we were both smallish newborns. I was around 6 pounds, he, 7. My 6 children's weights were all below 7 pounds. Despite me resting, eating right and gaining on the plump side (especially last time) for good measure. I am a happy person but often sedentary. I am interested to know if sedentary people have smaller babies. And by sedentary I mean I do house chores, homeschool and nurse, as well as writing and researching online (sitting on a swopper chair, so sitting in motion). I stay put in the house alot chasing my ambitions here. I used to walk every day if I could but haven't done that in a while. I do bellydance and stretch a little bit and even cycle indoors while watching the kids as I've started to be active again after birthing the last baby who was 3.5 pounds.

You read that right - I said my last baby was 3.5 pounds. He was probably a twin or even a triplet (to explain his extra small size) and he was born early. But he thrived like a full term baby in every way. At 12 weeks he's 9.5lbs now. We did hear an extra heartbeat and I even suspected that there were three in there at one point, halfway through. Because up until 24 weeks I was growing at triple speed. They were too early to intervene on so I continued the UP route for Mike's sake and hoped for twins but the pregnancy went on beautifully with the survivor anyway. If it was a triplet/twin to singleton pregnancy, though, it was one where the entire lost part of the pregnancy was reabsorbed. I know it can be done in many mammals and even in the first trimester of human pregnancies. I did not know it could happen in the second. But who in the medical community would allow a chance for that? They would want to scrape it all out if it didn't all appear at the birth, because they would have been scanning and probing the entire time and having all these expectations of what to do.

Supposedly it is also not possible to birth a 36 week, 3.5lb "singleton" at home with good results. But I did.

Thoughts?

[BlessedJess]

PS I did a little extra research on the Pygmies while writing and did find that Pygmies are all under 5 feet and it is because they are normal except for not having an adolescent growth spurt. Otherwise they are the same size as the rest of humanity as babies and children. Pygmy mothers seldom age past their 40s so they reach peak fertility at 15 years.

That's definitely not me. I grew until age 14, at least. But I grew slowly for my whole childhood. My teen growth spurt was just a couple of inches one year or something like that.

[RobynHeud]

You may want to read "Exercising Through Your Pregnancy".  It goes over a study they did following women who were sedentary vs. women who were very active (think marathoners).  If I recall correctly, the leanest babies were born to those who exercised throughout their pregnancy, followed by the sedentary moms, and the biggest babies were born to those who were active through the first half or so of their pregnancy and then became sedentary.  It's a combination of factors.  Bone structure, I imagine, is more genetically controlled and varies only with the parents and the time of gestation.  The extra weight is determined by the size of the placenta (women who are active at the onset of pregnancy tend to have much larger placentas) and the mother's level of activity throughout the pregnancy.  It's a really great book and I highly recommend it.
 

[Viola]

I have heard that women who exercise throughout their pregnancies tend to have slightly smaller babies.

I walked daily with my first pregnancy, but kind of gave up in the 3rd trimester.  But then I started retaining water a lot in the last two weeks or so, so I started walking again, either on a treadmill or outside.  I got my heartrate up into the aerobic range when I walked.  I gained about 25 lbs and had a 9lb 5oz baby.

So with my second, I walked throughout my pregnancy, uphills, sometimes at the limit of what I could do, really.  I kept up strength training, I did aerobic videos when I didn't walk.  I only gained 11 lbs...and I have an 11 lb 6 oz baby.  Not sure what happened there, although she seemed to gain a lot of height at the end.  Both times I tested negatively for GD, but maybe exercises masks it...dunno.

I'm not a small person, and I weighed 9-5 at birth also.

[A2JC4life]

My first baby was 5 lbs. 4 oz. at 40 weeks.  Beautifully formed and gorgeously healthy.  Healthier than just about any other babies I've known.  Just little.

[CrunchyMama19]

I am 5' 3" and fluctuate between 108 and 115 lbs at (except when pregnant when I can easily get to 150!). I had my first baby at 5 lbs. 7 oz. They were convinced it was IUGR and induced me at 38 weeks but she was perfectly healthy and happy and still is! That OB then said if I ever had any baby over 6 lbs he would C-section! I never went back to his practice and we did midwives for the next birth. My second was 6 lbs 13 oz (natural delivery!). So it's hard to say if I will have another peanut like my first or a more average sized baby this third round.  I still doubt I will ever have a 10 lb. baby. I was only 5lb 11 oz when I was born and my husband was just a little over 6 lbs. However, I have a friend who is even more petite than I am and she had a 9 lbs baby, natural delivery, no tearing. Her DH isn't a big guy either so I guess you just never know.

[A2JC4life]

Originally Posted by CrunchyMama19 

I am 5' 3" and fluctuate between 108 and 115 lbs at (except when pregnant when I can easily get to 150!). I had my first baby at 5 lbs. 7 oz. They were convinced it was IUGR and induced me at 38 weeks but she was perfectly healthy and happy and still is! That OB then said if I ever had any baby over 6 lbs he would C-section!

That's nuts!