Does This Pregnancy Make Me Look Fat?: The Essential Guide to Loving Your Body Before and After Baby [Paperback]

Claire Mysko (Author), Magali Amadeď (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 3, 2009

"How much weight will I gain—and how fast can I lose it?"
"Will my partner still want to have sex with me after watching the birth?"
"How do I handle the know-it-alls, judges, and Space Invaders?"
"Will I end up wearing Mom jeans forever?"

People might tell you you're glowing, but you just feel like you're growing, and perhaps you're not liking—or even recognizing--the changing image you see in the mirror. If you're like most expectant women, you're worried about what pregnancy and motherhood will do to your body, your sexuality, and your self-esteem (even if you don't want to admit it out loud for fear of the Bad Mommy Police). While the journey to motherhood is truly miraculous and brings forth life, it can also bring forth a myriad of legitimate concerns.

Enter beauty activists Claire Mysko and Magali Amadei, who reveal a much-needed forewarning on what to expect from your changing body, as well as a reality check for each stage of your pregnancy, exposing the myths, challenges, and insecurities you'll face throughout pregnancy and beyond—and what to do about them. From candid interviews with more than 400 women and men, as well as their own experiences, Claire and Magali help you discover:

- How you can learn to trust your changing body, appreciate it, and yes…even work it! 
- Why you should be wary of the Hollywood "bump watch" and post-baby weight loss stories– and how to take the focus off the scale
- How to deal with your raging hormones—in the bedroom and beyond
- The truth, the lies, and sure-fire fixes for sagging skin, acne, stretch marks, and boobs that continue to defy gravity
- How to recognize when your body issues get extreme—and how to get help

With startling confessions of women's unspoken fears and advice on how to remedy them, this essential compendium of girl-friendly advice will help champion any woman to feel her best about her body, herself, and her role as a mom.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mom and model Amadeï teams up with expert and activist Mysko to produce a lighthearted guide to combating a silent societal epidemic, the 80 percent of childless women who worry what pregnancy could do to their bodies. A long section devoted to realistic expectations for one's post-partum body is excellent, particularly the liberating point that women shouldn't expect to get their pre-baby body back. Though the informal style can sometimes seem overly flip ("gigantic ta-tas," anyone?), the authors do a great service in bringing to light a fear that women may believe they suffer with alone. Beyond pregnancy, the authors (both of whom struggled with bulimia) urge all women, pregnant or not, to "stop dieting" and instead try working on irrational feelings of body-based inferiority with some "vocab rehab." The concepts and solidarity offered here should prove valuable for millions of American women.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Claire Mysko is an internationally recognized expert on the issues facing women and girls today. As the director of the American Anorexia Bulimia Association, she oversaw outreach programs and managed the organization's hotline. She was the Executive Editor of SmartGirl and served as the Assistant Director of Communications at Girls Incorporated, the organization that inspires all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. Her book for tween girls, Girls Inc. Presents: You're Amazing! A No-Pressure Guide to Being Your Best Self, was published by Adams Media in 2008. Claire has an MA in Gender Studies from the New School for Social Research. Her website (clairemysko.com) was recently named one of the top seven websites about 'all things girl' by Shaping Youth.

Magali Amadeï has appeared on the covers and pages of every major fashion magazine in the world, including Vogue, Glamour, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Harper's Bazaar. Her international advertising campaigns include Banana Republic, L'Oreal, Pantene, and Dove. As a result of her battle with and victory over bulimia, Magali became the world's first top model to tour nationally and tell her story on behalf of an eating disorders organization. In 2005, she gave birth to a daughter. Magali recently appeared in Sex and the City: The Movie. Her essays are published in Feeding the Fame: Celebrities Tell Their Real-Life Stories of Eating Disorders and Recovery (Hazelden, 2006) and If I'd Known Then: Women In Their 20s and 30s Write ïLetter to Their Younger Selves (Da Capo, 2008).

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: HCI; 1 edition (September 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0757307922
• ISBN-13: 978-0757307928
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,457 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Mom of Two December 26, 2009

By Mom of Two

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I really enjoyed this book! The first review almost says it all, but I just wanted to add that although there may not have been a book devoted to the subject of pregnancy and body image, I feel that the subject is talked about enough for me to be almost tired of it. This book, however, approaches the issues in a new light and really made me feel like I could finally release my pregnancy related (and even non-pregnancy related) body issues. It's the way the book is written and the experiences shared within the book that made me feel empowered. I also want to add that when I read the book, I was about a year out from having my second child, and I still found this book extremely helpful. So, although the title references "pregnancy," it's really a book for pre-pregnancy, pregnancy and post-pregnancy (even years after your last child). Give it a try. It's a quick read and you have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pregnant with Advice December 7, 2009

By BarefootInTheHead

Format:Paperback

A surprisingly informative book, one whose subject matter -- pregnancy and post-partum body image insecurities in all their manifestations and myriad ramifications -- seems so obvious it's strange that ostensibly no one book has devoted itself to it. The authors -- one a model -- both of whom have suffered from eating disorders, delve deeply into this little talked-about topic with a trenchant candor and a breezy mordancy that only a woman would probably relate to -- unless a man wanted to understand his wife's pre- and post-childbirth issues and why maybe she doesn't feel all that erotic toward him suddenly. (It's well known that marriages often don't survive the crucial first two years after the birth of their first child, and although the reasons are multifarious, certainly a woman dealing with her own self-lacerating criticism about what her pregnancy did to her -- Mon dieu! -- is a significant factor in most of these divorces.) This is a day and age, sadly one might opine, where women are performing all manner of surgical self-mutilations on themselves -- rhinoplasties, mammary augmentations, face lifts, chin tucks, eyebrow lifts, Botox -- that it's no wonder that body image weighs heavily on their minds. One only has to look at the alarming rise in polypsychopharmacology to understand that women -- Freud's infamous "penis envy" sufferers -- are victims of a disingenous, hypocritical media- and visual-born culture, that exacts unreasonable demands on them. Although this book may at times peripheralize itself as pollyannish -- don't diet during pregnancy and you'll be fine, e.g. -- it also offers a plethora of advice for pregnant and post-partum women who find themselves under the saturnine spell of debilitating depressions.... Husbands can also learn that a curvy mother can be pretty sexy if they just take a virtual tour of the Louvre in their perfervid imaginations and stop de-eroticizing the woman they knocked up. Kudos to the authors for this fine book. Now they need to write the follow-up: "Sex and the Single Mom-Trying-to-Get-Back-into-Shape-Apres-Pregos-and-Divorce." Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Nice Dose of Reality, At Least Somewhat December 9, 2012

By C. Slocum

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is a reaction to American cultural portrayals of women, beauty, and the unrealistic expectations of women during and after pregnancy. I would liken it to a gentle smack upside the head of "YOU ARE CREATING A PERSON! BE KIND TO YOURSELF AND YOUR BODY." I think the readers who may appreciate this book the most are those who are accustomed to presenting themselves in a very feminine way, and subscribe to a very culturally normative standard of beauty. It reacts to celebrity magazine's focus on women's bodies during and after pregnancy, as well as describing how various women faced the changes in their body. It does not pretend that it's reasonable to love all of the changes your body goes through when you are pregnant, nor that pregnancy is a comfortable or glamorous state of being. It spends time talking in particulars about the struggles that women who have recovered (or not recovered) from eating disorders may experience during pregnancy, noting that few doctors actually talk about that. I was so relieved reading their discussion about numbers through the trimesters.

One of the authors is a model with many more resources than most people have, so some of her perspectives landed with a thud of, "Of course you feel that way; you have a lot of money." Otherwise I highly recommend this book for women who are pregnant. Even if you do not agree with everything that is said, it is a refreshing and down to earth discussion about one of the most prominent parts of having a child.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Every preggo should read this book! September 6, 2012

By Jess

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Since becoming pregnant I have received countless book recommendations. I have trudged through a few, laughed through a few others and I just happened to stumble upon this one by chance. This might be the BEST book I have ever read. I think that every pregnant woman (or mama) should read this book. I, like many other women, struggle with body image issues and I had fears about my body and the changes that pregnancy would bring. This book was magic for me. It helped to calm my fears. The book is informative, witty, encouraging and just all around a fantastic book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful and informative book July 12, 2012

By Patty Stamps

Format:Paperback

I was about 18 weeks pregnant with my first child when I read this book. I took this book out at my local library and finished it up in a few days while on vacation. It made me feel like I was not alone in my body image concerns pre and post natal. Having direct quotes from real women, not just the authors, from all different points of views was also helpful. I recommend this book for any pregnant woman who have slight body image issues to eating disorders.