Get any bunch of mums together (in my experience either within a very short while after pregnancy/birth or a very long time after so the wry humour is left and the need to share horror stories has passed!) and you’ll hear all the tales of how their body changed and the havoc that pregnancy wreaked on their body. I’ve got a fair few of my on too – yes, I know those stretch marks are my tiger stripes, my badge of honour and my battle scars – but frankly I wouldn’t have said no to being one of the women without them. And yes, it is marvellous to commune with memories of my mum by crossing my legs and bending over when I sneeze – but you know what, I have a limited budget and it never really had space for TenaLady. I can reminisce with the best of them about how my girls made me eschew tomatoes for sweets and cakes while my boys dried out my skin and made me crave meat (but only after 12 weeks, before which anything with a cooked flavour at all was a major issue) and those are memories that certainly make me smile but I’m slightly less fond of the saggy bits, the less than clenchy bits and the won’t ever be quite the same bits.
I’m also lucky in my house to be one of the ones with relatively normal eyesight; Max had his extremely bad eyes lasered a few years ago and Fran and Maddy plan to do the same with their ‘really pretty poor’ eyes but I only have a slight prescription, albeit one that makes quite a difference in certain lights and so I didn’t expect pregnancy to affect them. Strangely, it really did; as hormones and changing water content took its toll, my ability to focus quickly did too and for much of each pregnancy and the year after during breastfeeding, my eyesight was far weaker than before. Luckily for me it has returned to normal each time, meaning no overall change in prescription, but at the time it was actually quite an odd feeling – yet another part of my body not behaving as normal! Still, I got my vision back properly, which is more than can be said for my hair, which not only went far greyer but also stopped being curly!
The following infographic is an interesting look at the changes that take place and why however do also bear in mind that blurred vision can be a sign of serious pregnancy complications so if you experience sudden or acute vision changes, do consult an optician, midwife or doctor.
Infographic from Vision Direct UK reveals how pregnancy affects your vision.
In association with Vision Direct UK.
