Causes of pregorexia

Maggie Baumann, MFT, discusses a common question that women have about what causes pregorexia? After struggling with pregorexia herself, Maggie Baumann offers helpful insight for mothers who might be prone to this disorder during pregnancy.
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Causes of pregorexia

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I often get asked that question: What causes pregorexia in women? And the causes actually can be very similar to the general population. A lot of women with pregorexia have had a history of having an eating disorder prior to being pregnant and have been in remission, or they have actually had the eating disorder that's active before pregnant and it just continues. The causes for the women that have pregorexia are the same for women that have eating disorders but aren't pregnant. Those causes are low self-esteem, history of abuse, or trauma or depression or anxiety. Those are common factors. But specifically for pregorexic women, there's the additional stressors of becoming a mom, and becoming a mom is very scary to some people and they use the control of the pregorexia to help them deal with this transition into becoming a mom, and also the relationship difficulties becoming parents with their husband or partner. So all of these contribute, but specifically those two for pregorexic women.

Maggie Baumann, MFT, discusses a common question that women have about what causes pregorexia? After struggling with pregorexia herself, Maggie Baumann offers helpful insight for mothers who might be prone to this disorder during pregnancy.

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Maggie Baumann, MFT, CEDS

Certified Eating Disorder Specialist

Maggie Baumann is a marriage and family therapist in Newport Beach, California, specializing in treating eating disorders, addictions and trauma. Maggie is a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist (CEDS) by the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals. As a woman in recovery from anorexia, she speaks on the topic of eating disorder prevention and treatment to a wide audience. She has been a featured guest on numerous national television shows on eating disorder awareness and quoted in newspapers across the country including the New York Times as well as in national magazines including Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine. Her area of expertise within the eating disorder field is on “pregorexia”, a term describing a pregnant woman who is also struggling with an eating disorder. This is a life-threatening condition affecting the lives of both mom and her unborn baby. 

On a personal front, Maggie has been married 28 years and has two healthy grown daughters, Christine, 25 and Whitney, 24. Being a mom has been the most rewarding experience Maggie has encountered. Maggie enjoys staying active with healthy exercise and loves to be outdoors. Living one mile from the beach allows Maggie the luxury of enjoying the peace of the ocean. Photography, reading and spending time with her two kitties (who are really grown up cats) are other passions she appreciates doing in her leisure time.   

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