Letters! We get letters! Stacks, stacks, stacks of letters!

I love getting nice emails:

"I always felt really good about being a mother even though my body had changed and I did want to lose a little weight. I started to have ladies around me that either had no children and still had the great body or that by crash dieting they became skinny very quickly after birth. At first it had very little effect on my additude about being a mother, but it seemed that they bought into the whole "I look better than you and I am winning some weird contest "thing and eventually I had severe problems ( still do) with celebrities and the flaunting of their million dollars spent on the perfect body. Now everytime I see them I am disgusted and envious because of how my friends acted and how the tv warps your way of thinking about how life works. Even though I lost all the weight (too much got to 105 and I am 5'4") I did do it in a pretty healthy fashion, lots of excercise and well balanced nutritional diet ( unlike some people) I still wanted to have flawless skin and great breasts. I even considered after two girls to never anymore children and when I did decide to try for a boy (now soon to have another child) I decided that breast feeding would only increase the damage and that one day I would fix those and the ugly stretch marks with breast surgery and laser surgery!! Now that I only have 1 month of pregnancy to go and I have a wonderful family which includes my very supportive husband, I am considering breast feeding because I did so well before and once you are a mother, giving that up is only going to hurt the child not improve your breasts!! I now realize how ridiculous I have been by reading your blogs about celebrities and their unrealistic opinions of what the female's body is "supposed to look like", There IS NO SUCH THING!! thank you for the website and best wishes to other mothers who are always beating theirselves up to look perfect."

'Pregnancy is not a time for indulgence': Real life story

I think it's really important to let women speak on this blog in their own voices, so I'm posting an email I received from one woman who agrees with the new guidelines regarding the importance of mantaining a healthy weight in pregnancy and not overindulging. Feel free to respond with your own stories, thoughts and opinions.

"At nine months of pregnancy I weighed 117 pounds. I do not think pregnancy is a time for indulgence. I was never more disciplined than during my pregnancy. I think that ideally pregnant women should not eat fatty, junky, or processed food, every bite should be nutritious, every meal and snack proportioned healthily and not for a manatee. Of course, there's no such thing as perfection so every once and a while everyone is going to have a treat, but it's so important not to go overboard. Pregnancy with a single child normally only requires about 200 extra calories a day (like a handful of almonds or large banana). And exercise is so important. Being pregnant is like being told that in 9 months you'll be running a marathon, and the prize is a child that you'll love more than you ever imagined possible. I wanted a safe labor and birth for the benefit of both me and my child and did yoga and Pilates regularly and walked at least a couple miles a day. One day before my due date I went into labor. Labored for 6 hours, pushed for 15 minutes (receiving no IV, no epidural, or drugs of any kind), and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who was 20 inches long (51cm) and weighed 6 pounds and 15 ounces (about 3kg). Her pediatrician couldn't believe her APGAR score. She said it was the highest she'd ever seen. And because of the good health of both me and my baby, we were sent home early by approval of the doctor."

"I returned to my flat-stomached pre-pregnant size in about 5 days post-birth. My daughter will be a year old in a few days and I am still breastfeeding and making sure I eat nutritiously. Both my daughter and I are very active and love to play. She crawled at 5 months and took her first step at 8 1/2 months. She's running now and definitely gives me a daily workout. It's more important to me than ever to stay fit and not carry any extra weight because I need all the fitness and energy to keep up with her and have fun together** It's definitely possible for the average woman to be thin, attractive, and a mother (I have only one child but I know mothers of two, three, six, and seven that are thinner than I am). I'm a stay-at-home mom and wife and have no personal trainer or any of that stuff."

You can download the report from the Institude of Medicine about weight gain in pregnancy:

http://www.iom.edu/CMS/12552/31379/41424.aspx