*This article may have affiliate links, which means we may receive commissions if you choose to purchase through links we provide (at no extra cost to you). For more details, please read our privacy policy/affiliate disclosure. Thank you for supporting the work we put into this blog!

Big Stom­ach After Miscarriage Los­ing a baby through mis­car­riage after sev­er­al weeks or a few months is deeply trau­ma­tiz­ing for women. It leaves emo­tion­al scars that may last months or years, and it is an expe­ri­ence from which some women nev­er quite recov­er. At the very least, mis­car­riage is an upset­ting emo­tion­al event that no woman for­gets, even once she begins to heal and move on. Depend­ing on when you mis­car­ry – how far along in the preg­nan­cy you were – you may find your­self cop­ing with a big tum­my in the months after los­ing the baby. (Just to be clear: if you’ve lost your baby after 20 weeks, it is a still­birth.) Here at seizeyourlifetoday.com, we know that women who have endured a mis­car­riage must deal with an array of emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal hur­dles in order to recov­er. One of those hur­dles might be an excess weight around the waist­line. Weight gain is, of course, per­fect­ly nat­ur­al and encour­aged dur­ing those all-impor­tant first months of preg­nan­cy. But after you’ve mis­car­ried, what can you do to shed those extra pounds? In this arti­cle, we explore not only why you may be car­ry­ing excess weight but how you can lose it in a sen­si­ble and healthy way. Some­times los­ing a baby trig­gers emo­tion­al eat­ing, which may cause you to gain even more weight in spite of the mis­car­riage. How do you stop that cycle and get back to your pre-preg­nan­cy health and vitality? For help deal­ing with a big stom­ach after a mis­car­riage, con­tin­ue read­ing and learn what the experts say.

- Remember: Be Patient and Be Kind To Yourself

Let’s say you put on sev­en or eight pounds in the ear­ly stages of preg­nan­cy. Los­ing the baby does­n’t ensure you’ll lose those pounds right away. Your body has gone through a com­pli­cat­ed “baby prepa­ra­tion” process, so to speak. Hor­mones like estro­gen fluc­tu­ate and increase wild­ly through­out preg­nan­cy. Los­ing a baby inter­rupts that process, but hor­mone lev­els won’t set­tle down immediately. Give your body time to sta­bi­lize its hor­mone lev­els before tack­ling your tum­my’s extra weight. After all, cop­ing with such a pro­found loss takes time, and when some time has passed, you’ll be more ready to deal with shrink­ing your bel­ly and get­ting back into your pre­vi­ous weight and shape.

- Are You Eating Now For Emotional Consolation?

Weight gain is a nor­mal, healthy part of preg­nan­cy. But los­ing a baby can trig­ger emo­tion­al eat­ing – indulging in unhealthy foods that give instant grat­i­fi­ca­tion but not much in the way of nutri­tion. Many peo­ple (not just women) eat to con­sole them­selves dur­ing emo­tion­al­ly stress­ful times. And the pain and guilt that accom­pa­nies mis­car­riage some­times cause women to take com­fort in foods that are plea­sur­able at the moment but not good for them overall. If you’re doing this, the first step is being aware of it and slow­ly mak­ing pos­i­tive changes to your diet. If you’ve been buy­ing a favourite snack food or sug­ary treat, stop. You’ll be less like­ly to indulge if they aren’t on your pantry shelf, tempt­ing you.

- Begin Exercising As Soon As Your Doctor Gives You The Green Light

Depend­ing on when the mis­car­riage occurred, you will need plen­ty of rest before begin­ning to work out vig­or­ous­ly again. Your doc­tor is the best per­son to ask for advice on this. How­ev­er, a lit­tle gen­tle exer­cise is valu­able right away. Even get­ting out for a brisk walk in the fresh air will improve your mood and begin burn­ing calo­ries. Once you’ve recov­ered, you should start doing car­dio and resis­tance train­ing at your pri­or levels. These aren’t just tools for weight loss; they go a long way toward giv­ing you rush­es of all-impor­tant endor­phins. This help improves mood, pro­motes good sleep and makes you bet­ter able to cope with the height­ened emo­tions that accom­pa­ny a mis­car­riage. Once you are into an exer­cise rou­tine again, give some extra atten­tion to your abdom­i­nal muscles. Doing crunch­es and oth­er moves that tar­get your stom­ach helps shrink your tum­my and strength­ens your low­er back in the process. Resis­tance train­ing is a great way to fire up your metab­o­lism, so if you haven’t got any weights at home or aren’t accus­tomed to using them at the gym, now is the time to incor­po­rate them into your routine.

- Drink Plenty Of Water

As any weight loss expert will tell you, stay­ing hydrat­ed while try­ing to lose weight is key. Tak­ing in lots of flu­ids helps your body shed tox­ins and bloat, and you’ll feel trim­mer and look slim­mer if you con­sume six or eight large glass­es of water each day. Fur­ther­more, water is great for your complexion! Stay­ing hydrat­ed helps fine lines and wrin­kles look less obvi­ous and makes your skin smooth and clear. You can drink oth­er drinks as well, like calo­rie-free Crys­tal Light. (Check out our arti­cle on the deli­cious flavours of low-cal Crys­tal Light that work well on any weight reduc­tion program.)

- Talking To Others Helps Ease Your Pain 

big stomach after miscarriage Whether you talk online with a group of oth­er women who have lost babies to mis­car­riage or you vis­it a ther­a­pist in per­son for week­ly ses­sions, talk­ing about your loss is a healthy cop­ing strat­e­gy. As your anx­i­ety and pain begin to sub­side, you’ll feel more in con­trol of your emo­tions. That, in turn, will help you take con­trol of your body and get back on the path to men­tal well-being and phys­i­cal health. Once you’re in a more sta­ble and pos­i­tive frame of mind, you’ll be able to com­mit to a weight reduc­tion and exer­cise program.

- Take Up Meditation To Promote Calm

Noth­ing eas­es ten­sion bet­ter than 30 or 40 min­utes of mind­ful med­i­ta­tion. Go off by your­self, away from the fam­i­ly, and sit in a com­fort­able posi­tion in a qui­et room. Focus on tak­ing deep breaths. Each time you exhale, imag­ine you’re let­ting go of a lit­tle bit of phys­i­cal and psy­chic pain. Some women find it help­ful to qui­et­ly say good­bye to their baby dur­ing these ses­sions, grief coun­sel­lors sug­gest. Let­ting go a lit­tle each time helps you achieve clo­sure. And once you do that, you’re bet­ter equipped to move for­ward and reclaim your best phys­i­cal self.

- Talk To Your Family Members Too

While it’s help­ful to share your feel­ings with, as we not­ed above, oth­er women who’ve been through a mis­car­riage, it’s impor­tant that you talk to the rest of your fam­i­ly, too. They can’t lit­er­al­ly under­stand how you feel phys­i­cal­ly, but that does­n’t pre­clude them from expe­ri­enc­ing the loss right along with you. If your spouse was excit­ed about the impend­ing birth, no doubt they will have many feel­ings to share. The same is true if you have oth­er chil­dren who knew you were expect­ing and who were look­ing for­ward to hav­ing a new sib­ling. Although the mis­car­riage hap­pened only to you in the phys­i­cal sense, it hap­pened to all of them, too, in an emo­tion­al sense. Do your best to include them in the con­ver­sa­tion and heal­ing process, so you can unite as a fam­i­ly and move for­ward in a healthy way. And tell them you’re ready to address any weight gain you’ve expe­ri­enced. Get back to walk­ing togeth­er in the park with the kids or Sat­ur­day hikes as a fam­i­ly – activ­i­ties like these speed up your metab­o­lism and burn calories. Doing things togeth­er also fos­ters close­ness and brings you togeth­er as a tight fam­i­ly unit. You may find that not only is every­one sup­port­ive of your weight loss goals, but they may also be will­ing to join in and revamp meals so that every­one starts eat­ing better.

In Summary

Los­ing a baby to a mis­car­riage is a dif­fi­cult phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al process that takes time to recov­er from. Hav­ing a big stom­ach after­wards is bound to impact your self-esteem and self-con­fi­dence. That’s why it’s so impor­tant that you begin address­ing weight gain as soon as you can, both med­ical­ly and psychologically. Eat­ing nutri­tious, whole foods, pay­ing atten­tion to por­tion size and get­ting fresh air and exer­cise are all key com­po­nents of a “get­ting healthy again” pro­gram you should begin as soon as you are able. As long as your doc­tor approves, you should start a new reg­i­men with­in sev­er­al days or a few weeks of los­ing the baby. This is a trau­mat­ic and emo­tion­al peri­od in a wom­an’s life. How­ev­er, reclaim­ing your body in a healthy way by los­ing weight and exer­cis­ing goes a long way toward help­ing you heal. Talk to oth­ers who have expe­ri­enced a sim­i­lar loss; ask your fam­i­ly for sup­port and pos­i­tive rein­force­ment of new goals; and seek pro­fes­sion­al help if you’re strug­gling to over­come the sad­ness that accom­pa­nies miscarriage. Once you begin cop­ing with the loss, you’ll feel ready to make pos­i­tive changes to your eat­ing habits and exer­cise rou­tine. And once you’re on the road to good health again, you can make a choice about when you may want to try again for anoth­er baby. But first, pay atten­tion to your phys­i­cal needs. Hav­ing a big stom­ach after a mis­car­riage is demor­al­iz­ing. Fol­low the guide­lines we’ve men­tioned here, and you’ll be on your way to good health and vital­i­ty again very soon.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join Our Mailing List To Receive The Latest News and Updates From Our Team. Don't Miss a Post! Get the Weekly Newsletter Sent Right to Your Inbox!

You have Successfully Subscribed!