Hip Spread Drama

  

I have another friend who looks like a skinny super model (another bitch) at 5’11’ with blonde hair and piercing green eyes. She was tiny all over with her first pregnancy, super lean but complained about the “hip spread”. The amazing hip spread is a strange phenomenon, which most women do experience. I experienced it in the last few weeks of my first pregnancy but experienced it in the beginning of the second trimester with my second. In fact my tall, blonde friend mentioned above, gave me a few maternity clothes at the beginning of my second pregnancy and I tried on these ¾ pants that looked huge through the hips. They were 4 sizes bigger than my normal pre pregnancy size (PPS).  Now I see what she meant about the hip spread – she must have been huge during her pregnancy because she is what I refer to as a lovely stick figure, so I was absolutely dumbfounded that these pants ever fit her.

To my own dismay they actually began to fit me too in the second trimester (damn) so, yes, it doesn’t matter how skinny or fit or fat you are, you need to be prepared for the dastardly hip spread.

Here is the low down on why hip spread happens in my own words, with some science thrown in. During pregnancy we have a hormone pumping through our bodies known as RELAXIN  (no, that’s not the name of a Bob Marley single). This hormone is primarily responsible for loosening the ligaments through our joints in preparation for childbirth. It will be predominately apparent through the hip area but be aware that it lingers everywhere through out the body in all joints and this is also the reason why many women’s feet spread – getting wider or longer as the tiny bones loosen and spread out. I have even heard stories of women who have not been able to fit into the pre pregnancy shoes at all, having gone up a full size. To the complete dismay of their partners, they have had to buy a whole new wardrobe of shoes – which can be a bugger if you have spent all your pre mom years collecting Dolce and Gabbana or Manolo Blahniks. In fairness though, any normal woman fails to wear high heels again until their youngest is past the terrible two’s. For instance, my criteria in buying shoes these days has gone from 4inch plus heel height to me being able to run in them…I have to be able to catch my toddler. Damn it, he has my sprinting gene!!