Studies show that women with a current or past eating disorder experience more difficulties during pregnancy. While the difficulties are primarily psychological in nature for women with past eating disorders, they are both psychological and physical in women who are active anorexics and bulimics during pregnancy. Similarly, there is evidence to support the theory that children of women with past or current eating disorders experience less socialization as to proper eating behavior. These children are also of lower weight in the toddler years than control children. There has been no extensive research regarding the long-term outcome for these children.
Pregnancy is by no means an appropriate route to the cessation of an eating disorder.
Many women believe that becoming pregnant will force them to overcome their eating disorder, because the baby s health is at stake. We have seen, however, that although disordered eating behavior tends to decrease during pregnancy, the disorder itself often resurfaces post-delivery and can actually increase in severity. On the positive side, pregnancy is a time when women are already in contact with medical services. Thus, they may be more prepared to seek medical treatment out of concern for the health of their infant. References Bonne, Omer B., Benjamin Rubinoff and Elliot M. Berry.