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Looking Pregnant

QUESTION

Dear Midwife,
What determines when a woman will start showing -- weight, height, genetics, water retention, none of the above? My sister is 15 weeks pregnant and is not showing at all. I'm 12 weeks and am really showing. She's much more slender then I am, weighing about 15-20 pounds less (same height though). Just curious on why this is.

Thanks,
JKoestler

ANSWER

All of the things you mention, plus size of the uterus, which number baby it is, how the woman carries the baby, how many babies she has, and wrong dates just to name a few.

If this is not your first baby, what is showing is probably not the baby at 12 weeks, but the mommy. The top of the uterus on most women is just peeking over the pubic bone at 12 weeks, so anything above that is not the baby.

-- Cynthia, CNM

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Cynthia Flynn

Cynthia Flynn, CNM. PhD, is the General Director of the Family Health and Birth Center which provides prenatal, birth, postnatal, gynecological and primary health care to underserved women and their families in Washington, D.C. Recently Cynthia served as Associate Professor of Nursing at Seattle University. There she not only taught, but remained in full scope clinical midwifery practice at Valley Medical Center where she cared for pregnant and birthing women, and practices well-woman gynecology, family planning, and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.

Cynthia founded Columbia Women's Clinic and Birth Center, where she took care of pregnant women and infants up to two weeks of age and attended both birth center and hospital births. Before Cynthia earned her CNM, she worked as a registered nurse in labor and delivery and postpartum and is a certified Doula and Doula trainer.