A pregnancy post a Sleeve Gastrectomy

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This article comes from my personal experience and not just some referencing on the Internet or talking to some doctors or patients.. So I can vouch for it a hundred percent. I say this as the first thing - because this is a very sensitive matter - pregnancies are very precious and sleeve gastrectomy is a very major operation. 

A quick brief for those who don’t know what I am talking about - 

Sleeve Gastrectomy is a weight loss operation that obese people undergo when they have tried all other means and are still unable to lose weight. In this operation, using the laparoscopic method, the stomach of the patient is cut down to almost 10-20% of its actual size and then stapled to give it an intestine (tube) like shape instead of the regular bean shape. What it basically does is that it reduces the intake of food - the patient is unconsciously forced to eat only small portions and that too at regular 2-3 hours intervals. This then leads to a consistent weight loss over six months to a year’s duration till the patient is fairly close to their ideal body weight.

These days, usually it is the girls who go through it in their early or late twenties - when they have got tired with all their repeated failures at various weight loss programs. Hence, the biggest question that they all pose is what will happen when they will conceive? 

Will it affect their fertility adversely? 

Even if they do conceive, will their baby be under constant threat? 

Will the baby get enough nourishment, considering the restricted food intake?

I think it is a valid concern. When everyone around you is getting obsessed about you eating for two people; how would you feel if you were hardly eating for one? 

Most often, a gynaecologist is going to defy all these myths of eating for two people and going to tell you to go for smaller meals at regular intervals. And remember, this you have already been doing for a long time. And coming to nourishment - that’s exactly what the prenatal vitamins are for! Even for those who have not been operated, these additional supplements have been prescribed - the simple reason being that the quantity of your food doesn’t guarantee the right nutrients reaching the foetus. For that - you have all these additional supplements and they do their job right regardless of whether you have got operated or no. And then coming to the delivery part - these are two different systems in your body - one is a digestive system and other is the reproductive system - they do not affect each other at the delivery stage. So relax!! 

Simply enjoy your pregnancy and let your past surgery not stress you today….