At just 12 weeks, her baby belly has grown to 55 inches, she has piled up over 6kg 9lb, 5 sizes of skirts… and even afraid that she will be weighed down when lying on her back.
For Lara Carpenter-Beck, the enormousness of it was all too plain to see.
“I didn’t sure what I was going to do because it was my first pregnancy, but I knew that growing at this rate is not normal.”
Mrs. Carpenter-Beck is 5ft7in and size 12. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes – a disease that occurs when the body does not produce insulin and is not related to obesity – in 2011 a week before marrying her husband. real estate agent Chris, 38 years old.
Even though she is aware that pregnant women with diabetes are more likely to gain weight, she is surprised that she has been watching her portion sizes.
At 32 weeks, a nurse told her baby had weighed 6lb – not far from the average weight of a full-term baby (7lb 6oz for girls) even though she was still 8 weeks
At 36 weeks she weighed 18st and had to wear size 22 clothes because normal maternity wear would not fit around her huge bump, which then measured 55 inches in circumference.
When her waters suddenly broke she was rushed in to hospital for a Caesarean section. She and her husband were relieved when daughter Savannah was born healthy – at a bouncing 9lb 5oz.
Mrs Carpenter-Beck, from Bristol, said she worried about regaining her figure but lost the weight in a year with the help of Slimming World
I couldn’t believe how large I had become, but that hasn’t stopped me from having more. The reward for everything is a healthy baby.
And we overcame a difficult and challenging pregnancy. Instead, I was able to see my little angel born safely and healthy.
