Pregnancy is undeniably a time of accelerated body change. For women who may have a history of avoiding their body or engaging in other types of negative body image perpetuating behaviours, body avoidance becomes impossible to pursue. And while this can be a huge struggle, it can also be a wonderful opportunity to begin the healing work around your own relationship with food and your body image.

What is negative body image?

There are a few main types of behaviour that can reveal a problematic relationship with body image:

1. Body checking: a common behaviour that consists of hopping on the scale, pinching your body, or obsessively looking at yourself in the mirror multiple times a day
2. Body comparison: a frequent comparing of yourself to others, whether in real live or through social media, or to your own former body, especially common in pregnancy
3. Body avoidance: on the other end of the spectrum of body checking is body avoidance, which includes intentionally avoiding mirrors, hiding...