Last week, I was dismayed to see some stretch marks in my lower belly. I dismissed it immediately hoping that they wouldn’t be there anymore as I was not sure whether or not they were, indeed, stretch marks. But last night, the inevitable happened. I captured a photo of my growing belly, and, indeed, the stretch marks are visible – five scratches on the right, and one scratch on the left. SIGH.

For the past 8 months, I have been so careful not to scratch my belly. But one morning, during my 9th month period of pregnancy, I remember waking up with my fingers scratching my belly. Maybe, that was the culprit for my stretch marks.

An article from Expectant Mother’s Guide says that genetics plays a large part in developing stretch marks among pregnant women. “This means that if your mother got stretch marks during pregnancy, you may be more likely to get them yourself.” But hey, I wonder how my mother did it for her five pregnancies – she got no stretchmarks, not a single one. At 59, her belly is still as beautiful as ever, no bulges, no stretch marks, no scratches, no blemishes. I am on my first pregnancy, yet, my belly has six pieces of stretch marks! I know that this is minimal compared to some pictures of pregnant women I saw last night where their belly is covered with scratches – all over.

Dr. James Brann says that “the more weight you gain during pregnancy the more likely you are to have stretch marks”. Well, I think this is also one of the reasons why I developed stretchmarks. I am now weighing 55kg, most probably, I gained a total of 12-14kg during my pregnancy. But I read that this is the normal weight gain so this means that I am not overweight. Read the rest of this entry »