Does Pregnancy Age Your Body?

All women know that pregnancy changes their body permanently. But does pregnancy age your body faster than it would normally have? That is the question you would not have asked yourself or your doctor yet. Post pregnancy body changes are common and everyone knows about them. Most young women try to delay pregnancy as much as possible because they think pregnancy would in fact ruin their looks.

But if pregnancy did age your body, how would all the celebrities be having their babies and still looking so gorgeous? You could argue that celebrities have beauty treatments and cosmetic surgery at their disposal. For the average woman, these expensive treatments are not an option. So it is very important for them to know whether pregnancy ages their body and makes everlasting changes.

IS IT SAFE TO EAT CHOCOLATE DURING PREGNANCY?

Skin loosening and sagging breasts are post pregnancy body changes that we are aware of. Everything depends on how you take care of your body after pregnancy. Some signs of ageing and post pregnancy body changes are quite similar. However, there is no evidence to show that pregnancy itself makes you age faster.

Here is a closer look to see if pregnancy ages your body faster than it should.

Extra Pounds

.Most women never lose the weight they gain after pregnancy. This does not mean that pregnancy makes you fat. It is in fact a personal choice to put in that effort to lose the extra baby weight as quickly as possible

Weight Gain

Some women have also complained that they progressively gained weight after their pregnancy. This again has little to do with pregnancy itself. Ageing is a natural process that slows down your system of metabolism. So you gain weight due to ageing and not because of pregnancy.

Stretch Marks

Stretch marks as such are not signs of ageing. Many young people who lose weight suddenly have stretch marks. So although these marks look ugly, they do not add age to your body.

Loose Skin

Loosing up of the skin is an effect of pregnancy as well as ageing. However, massages help to improve your body shape and increase the elasticity of the skin.

Hair Loss

Pregnancy does not make you lose hair. All the hair that you lose in your post partum period is actually the hair that you did not shed due to your pregnancy hormones before. However, if you do not eat well after pregnancy, you can lose hair because of malnutrition.

Greying

Greying happens because of lack of particular nutrients in your food. You need to have Vitamin B supplements to prevent or reverse greying of hair. This has little to do with pregnancy in general.

Sagging Breasts

Whether or not you feed your baby, your breasts do sag a little after pregnancy. Pregnancy hormones make your breasts softer and that makes them sag a little. Sagging is also a sign of ageing.

Waist

It is a common notion that you can never have a flat tummy after pregnancy. This is not strictly speaking true. It is a combination of genetics and hard work. Some women do not have the post pregnancy baby bump at all like Kate Middleton. And some women have it and have to work hard in losing the bump. But you can have a normal waistline again.

Dark Patchy Skin

The pregnancy mask or dark skin patches are common during pregnancy. They tend to fade away after you deliver. A dark line across your stomach may stay for some time and then fade away. Moles and nipples get darker and usually do not lighten. None of these are signs of ageing.

Wrinkles

Sometimes, pregnancy can make you look tired and aged. This is because your body loses its nutrient reserve after pregnancy. You need to eat well after you deliver to be back on your feet. If you don't take care of your body after pregnancy, you might get wrinkles.

Getting Pregnant Later Age

Getting pregnant at an advanced age does speed up the process of ageing. This is simply because the elasticity of your skin and your body's ability to bounce back is reduced with age. Ideally, your body is best suited to get pregnant in the 20s or early 30s.