At my first antenatal appointment, I was asked to take part in a research project for Tommy's charity - an organisation which funds research into pregnancy related problems. Their mission is "To give every baby the best chance of being born healthy" and in order to help try and achieve this, they organise and carry out LOADS of research into various pregnancy issues. The project I am involved with is "Research into Pregnancy and Obesity."
Of course I'm far from obese (at the moment!) - in order to be asked to take part in the obese category you have to have a BMI of >40. Mine was 23 which is bang in the middle of the "normal" range, so therefore I was asked to be in the control group.
My first appointment was in July where they weighed and measured me, did a body fat analysis, took blood samples and gave me five different questionnaires to fill in asking me about every aspect of my life!
Today was my second appointment. I had to go to the hospital fasted from midnight the previous night, and was given 410mls of Lucozade to drink in 10 minutes. Apparently this amount was worked out to give a precise amount of glucose per fluid ounce! I then had to fill in more questionnaires and had a growth scan of the baby. It was quite difficult to see much because I guess the baby is so much bigger than the 20 week scan! It was also VERY wriggly and the radiographer was having real trouble getting the measurements. However he managed eventually and plotted the results on a graph for my notes.
Head circumference on Left, Abdomen circumference on Right
Baby is slightly bigger than average at the moment, but hopefully it'll level off or at least not grow above the top centile line. Hopefully avoiding too many cakes and chocolate bars will stop this from happening!
I was weighed and measured again and told my body fat content had gone from 28% to 31% since the last visit. Yuck. It's horrible to think that nearly a third of your body is made of fat! But I'm told this is still lower than average...!
Hopefully the research project will do some good, but I suppose people are not going to stop being obese and getting pregnant. And I'm not sure whether publishing the findings will make people realise they need to lose weight before conceiving. If my job is anything to go by, I see a lot of the health advice given by the government being ignored - people still smoke like chimneys, eat nothing but greasy fast food, inject drugs into their veins... and with the media being so prominent in our lives there is no excuse for ignorance any more!
But perhaps if the research means that just one child born with better health prospects for the future, then it's worth it?
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