While most expectant mothers marvel at the site of their growing baby
bumps, Maggie Baumann says she was "horrified." "As my stomach began to
grow, I remember being in the shower and my bump was sticking out and I
looked down at my body and I thought, 'I don't even want to be in this
body,'" said Baumann.
Baumann, a 48-year-old mother of two, says she struggled with an eating disorder during her pregnancies, a condition sometimes referred to as "pregorexia." "I wasn't even thinking about the baby," said Baumann of her first daughter, Christine, who is now 23.
Baumann, who lives in Laguna Niguel, Calif., struggled with anorexia since her high school years, but that it worsened after she got married and began having children. "I feared my pregnancy," said Baumann, who gained a normal 33 pounds during her first pregnancy. "I refused to buy maternity clothes and our neighbors didn't even know I was pregnant until the ninth month. I hid it well."
Baumann says that it was during her second pregnancy when she gained a measly 3 pounds that she saw her anorexia worsen. She began over-exercising to try and quell her growing belly. An hour and a half of cardio -- running, biking and even volleyball -- was typical for her up until she gave birth. Even when Baumann almost miscarried Whitney at the beginning of her pregnancy, cutting out exercise and increasing her daily caloric intake was not an option.
Finally suffering from chest pain, Baumann went to the emergency room and after doctors told her that her organs were failing, checked into an in-patient treatment center in Arizona. Today, Baumann maintains a healthy weight and lifestyle and is proud that both her daughters live similarly healthy lives.
Baumann, a 48-year-old mother of two, says she struggled with an eating disorder during her pregnancies, a condition sometimes referred to as "pregorexia." "I wasn't even thinking about the baby," said Baumann of her first daughter, Christine, who is now 23.
Baumann, who lives in Laguna Niguel, Calif., struggled with anorexia since her high school years, but that it worsened after she got married and began having children. "I feared my pregnancy," said Baumann, who gained a normal 33 pounds during her first pregnancy. "I refused to buy maternity clothes and our neighbors didn't even know I was pregnant until the ninth month. I hid it well."
Baumann says that it was during her second pregnancy when she gained a measly 3 pounds that she saw her anorexia worsen. She began over-exercising to try and quell her growing belly. An hour and a half of cardio -- running, biking and even volleyball -- was typical for her up until she gave birth. Even when Baumann almost miscarried Whitney at the beginning of her pregnancy, cutting out exercise and increasing her daily caloric intake was not an option.
Finally suffering from chest pain, Baumann went to the emergency room and after doctors told her that her organs were failing, checked into an in-patient treatment center in Arizona. Today, Baumann maintains a healthy weight and lifestyle and is proud that both her daughters live similarly healthy lives.
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