Blog: Mums pressured to lose pregnancy weight?

I put on four stone when I was expecting my first child, writes Amy Bould.

I thought I was going to have one of those giant babies which occasionally makes the news: "Woman gives birth to two stone baby with three teeth."

You can imagine my horror when he was put on the scales and topped all of 3lb 11oz.

So I, more than most, might be qualified to talk about research today which reveals six out of 10 new mothers feel under pressure to lose their pregnancy weight quickly, that women feel inadequate compared to the celebrity mums who spring back into shape without a stretchmark in sight.

The survey by Netmums and the Royal College of Midwives found 61 per cent of women thought their midwife didn't dedicate enough time to discussing weight concerns, with many new mums worried about shedding the pounds afterwards.

The truth is women will always be worried about their weight (whether they admit it or not) and midwives will be far more concerned about how much weight your baby is gaining than how much you're not losing.

Celebrity new mothers often have a nanny to do the night feeds, a personal trainer on tap and maybe even specially-designed 'diet' meals delivered to the door to ensure they're back in their size zeros before the little one is even weaned.

But for the majority of new mothers, the reality is very different. They have a lot on their plate, if you'll excuse the pun.

They go through the worst pain imaginable over goodness knows how many hours or days, followed by months of sleepless nights, the midnight feeds, the endless changing of nappies and the acceptance that getting out of the house before midday in those first few weeks will be a major struggle.

Midwives are there to help women go through one of the most emotional and intense (and intensely painful!) episodes of their lives.

Midwives are the people women turn to in the night-time hours after the father has left the hospital ward.

They are the helping hand to navigate the first few days and the reassuring voice when the baby blues set in.

They are on the other end of the phone when baby refuses to feed and refuses to sleep, they are the angels who make you a cup of tea in your own kitchen, hand you a tissue and tell you everything will be okay.

It's a bit much to be asking them to become weight loss counsellors as well, holding midwife led classes on the NHS focusing helping women lose the baby fat.

Losing weight is very simple, eat less, exercise more.

A midwife once told me: "You took nine months to put it on, it'll take nine months to take it off."

Wise words. And very true.