Right, in many cases the doctor or the husband are guilty of pressuring women to restrict their pregnancy weight gain to unhealthy limits.
However I still say that in some cases it is the women themselves who are being vain.
There is so much celebrity idolatry in our culture, and the media set up --as examples for us to emulate-- celebrity women who stay slim and chic while pregnant -- while pointing to the celebrity's cute little "baby bump." It's a narcissistic thing.
Do you know women who have done this? Have you ever been pregnant? I ask because your remarks don’t reflect what I encountered in my work. I’ve worked in a medical environment and have had contact with many, many pregnant women and with their doctors. I’ve also examined the medical records of thousands of pregnant women. I’m a mother myself with a number of pregnancies. And I never heard or saw or read about a woman who said, “I have to keep my weight down so I’ll look like Jennifer Anniston.” What I do hear them saying is, “I know I shouldn’t gain 75 pounds but I’m crazed with hunger, and if I don’t eat I get low blood sugar. Put an ox on the kitchen table and I’ll eat it all by myself.”
Sometimes women also don’t gain enough weight not because they’re vain or their husbands and doctors pressure them, but because they are so terribly nauseated.