Fat and Fertile: How to get pregnant in a bigger body

by Nicola Salmon

If you have been told that you need to lose weight to get pregnant, you’re probably feeling pretty crap right now. Your mind is going a million miles a minute:

- frantically searching for another way to try and lose weight,

- feeling so guilty that you could have let yourself get to this point,

- swallowed by the utter sadness that you can’t do the one thing in the world that you want most, to get pregnant.

You are in the right place, my friend.

In this book, Nicola breaks down the stigma that surrounds people who want to get pregnant in fat bodies. In a mix of personal experience, supportive advice and real research, she:

- dives deep into what it means to get pregnant in a fat body,

- offers tools to support you throughout the journey

- and guides you through the twists and turns you may experience as you navigate infertility in a bigger body.

Nicola Salmon is a fat-positive and feminist fertility coach. She advocates for change in how fat women are treated on their fertility journey and supports fat women who are struggling to get pregnant to find peace with their body, find their own version of health and finally escape the yo-yo dieting cycle.

Genres: Nonfiction, Fat, Health, Science

175 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 16, 2019

Reviews

[Johanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really hate ever rating a book below 3 stars. I love Nicola's group on Facebook, and I am fighting myself to rate honestly on this one because of that.

I was really excited to get this book in the mail. Because I love her group so much, I had such high expectations for this book. It was nothing like what I expected. The majority of the book was info about HAES, anti-fatphobia, and intuitive eating and had really nothing to do with fertility or pregnancy. I expected this to be about fertility and pregnancy, addressing the research that is weaponized against fat people and the research that would free them from the horrible things that doctors and the general public say about fat people, and then something at all regarding the subtitle of the book (how to get pregnant in a bigger body). There were a few pages towards the middle of the book that talk about the research on fertility treatment, and there are a few pages in the final chapter about pregnancy for fat people. I expected the entire book to be about the facts on fertility and pregnancy, so to find only 10 pages total halfheartedly cover this was super disappointing. In terms of fertility, really only research behind fertility treatments and BMI were covered, and the only explanation given for why fat people have higher rates of infertility is diet culture, and I don't understand how that's the case. I'm not sure why the subtitle of the book is "how to get pregnant in a bigger body," when the facts and info on this just aren't really in the book at all.

I suppose if you've never read anything in your life about intuitive eating and fatphobia, then maybe this book will be great for you as you're facing difficulty getting pregnant. I think this book would be better marketed with a different subtitle and as an introductory look at fatphobia, HAES, and intuitive eating specifically for women struggling with infertility. That's a better understanding of this, and if I had known that up front, I don't think I would have been as disappointed.

I was really hoping for this to teach me something, and I really didn't learn anything.

Unrelated to the content, but there was at least one typo on almost every single page of the book. There were a handful of times where it was actually difficult to understand what was being said because the typo completely changed the meaning of the sentence. There are periods missing all over the place and little typos like "if" instead of "is" or "us" instead of "is..." It just doesn't appear that this book was edited at all before print. :(

[Basha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am this books target audience in that I am a fat person planning to get pregnant soon. There’s a lot that this book gets right: the fact that diets don’t work so they shouldn’t be medically prescribed, the fact that fat people therefore aren’t at fault for failing at their diets, the fact that weight-based pregnancy complications are both overstated and also possibly correlation not causation. Nicola Salmon aptly identifies that health is not accurately measured by weight and that health can be improved upon to increase fertility regardless of weight. She addresses the internalized biases that make us fat ppl feel unable or unworthy of pregnancy and more broadly happiness at our size. So yeah, that’s all good stuff. That said, this book was incredibly underwhelming to me. First of all I know it’s self published but there’s so many typos! Example on page 36: how instead of now. Second of all, when she addresses her readers, who she assumes are all fat people trying to get pregnant from deep within the trenches of fatphobia, she repeatedly calls her readers “my loves” which really weirds me out. I know she’s conveying compassion and shared experience but ick I don’t know you lady! I’d say overall her tone needs some polishing? But overall, my biggest issue with this book is that there’s actually not much fertility information!! WTF. When I got to page 40 I was strongly suspecting this to be true, (especially because she had just stated that the real reason for fat infertility issues is that we have a history of weight cycling... something there’s literally no data to support at least not in her book)... So I flipped forward and yeah, no fertility info, just lots of pep talks and a summary of things like medical fatphobia and HAES. Maybe if someone was completely new to body positivity, HAES, intuitive eating, recognizing and interrupting internalized fatphobia, self care, and advocating for themselves with doctors, this book would be useful? But I thought I’d learn something about my actual fertility. Oh well. Should have skipped it.

[Emily Zupkus · Rating 4 out of 5]

a great read for anyone really, regardless of weight or fertility status. Has some helpful journaling exercises and written in an engaging, nonjudgmental way.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some good info, though it was really poorly cited (seriously, dropping a URL at the bottom of the page is not a citation). There were also so many grammatical and spelling errors that it was really hard not to get frustrated.

Overall I liked the information presented in the book and found it very inspiring, especially in my quest to ditch diet culture. The workbook that accompanied the book was also nice, with activities that weren't ridiculous or didn't take so much time that they were a hinderance at all.

[Felicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll spoil the book for you right now - the way to get pregnant in a bigger body is to stop hating yourself. The reason you are infertile is because you hate yourself. Truly, this is what 85% of the book is saying. The other 15% is don't let doctors bully you because you are fat. A good message, but not quite as practical as I had hoped. I believe this is also self-published, and it is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. I would recommend this book if you hate yourself for being fat.

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good book

4 stars because I wish there was more content about the IVF process and data around that for fat women. Most of this book is dedicated to helping women accept their weight and know it will not affect their fertility. The book was super helpful to me in that regard.

[Lauren Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!

So informative and exactly what I needed to hear. Encourages healthy attitudes and mindsets for life, not just pregnancy. Lots of hard evidence with cited sources to empower you, and helpful tips on how to approach doctors.

[Ashley McElwee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was informative and encouraging. It does need some revising for grammar and syntax issues, but overall the message was great. I did find some explanations to be repetitive, but I think that with a revision and potentially an expansion, this could be an even more wonderful resource.

[Hal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good book. There were a lot of typographical errors and my editor brain would like to take a crack at the text, but as for the actual content, it was very good. I had a lot of big feelings while reading this

[JJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the information in this book interesting and helpful. However, there were way too many typos and incorrect words throughout it that should have been caught and corrected during the editing process.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

A breath of fresh air. Exactly what I needed right now.

[Amber K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting perspective. I enjoyed reading this from a different point of view than most doctors/authors take on this topic.

[illyria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great info!

This book was informative and kind, I hope every future parent reads it. I especially love the anti diet messaging with actual scientific studies mentioned in support.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for more practical advice or shared experience re: fertility. While I appreciate the push for body inclusivity and health at any size much of the advice felt disconnected from the experience of pregnancy specifically

[UnapologeticallyArdis · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who is more along her journey of fat acceptance I found not all of the chapters necessarily called to me. It's certainly a great introduction book to embracing your body, especially as you begin the trying to conceive journey. However, other parts were very informative such as some of the study statistics and some of the ways to handle doctors. Even as someone who considers herself and advocate when advocating for my fertility I feel like I fail to have to words or knowledge and this book gave me those stepping stones.

[Alannes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this every fat girl should red