Woman's physical feature after childbirth?

  • Thread starter Thread starter pivoxa15
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Physical
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the physical changes women may experience after childbirth, particularly focusing on facial features and other bodily transformations. Participants explore various factors contributing to these changes, including hormonal shifts, weight fluctuations, and lifestyle adjustments, while also touching on related topics such as menopause and long-term relationship dynamics.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that changes in physical features after childbirth may be permanent and occur throughout the body, while others focus specifically on the face.
  • One participant attributes changes to weight gain and loss during pregnancy, as well as hormonal changes that affect body shape and fat distribution.
  • Another participant notes that lifestyle changes after childbirth, such as lack of sleep, may also contribute to perceived differences in appearance.
  • There are claims that women may look more like their husbands after childbirth, though this assertion is met with skepticism and counterarguments from other participants.
  • Some participants express doubt about the existence of significant changes in facial features, citing personal experiences and photographs as evidence.
  • Discussion includes a question about whether women who have given birth experience menopause differently compared to those who have not, with one participant referencing a childbirth specialist's input.
  • The conversation also touches on the idea that couples may begin to resemble each other over time, particularly in the context of long-term relationships.
  • Some participants challenge the notion of couples looking alike, particularly in cases of interracial relationships, while others dismiss this as anecdotal or humorous.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of views on the topic, with no clear consensus on the extent or nature of physical changes after childbirth. Disagreements arise regarding the significance of these changes, the impact of hormonal and lifestyle factors, and the validity of claims about couples resembling each other over time.

Contextual Notes

Participants acknowledge various assumptions and limitations in their discussions, such as the influence of personal experiences and the subjective nature of physical appearance. The conversation also highlights the complexity of factors influencing changes in women's bodies post-childbirth.

pivoxa15
Messages
2,250
Reaction score
1
Why does a woman change her physical features slightly after giving a child? I assume this change of feature is permanent? Does this change occur throughout the body or mainly the face or which area?
 
Biology news on Phys.org
I would assume a lot of it has to do with the dramatic weight gain and loss, and changes in hormone levels (why her breasts would have to become bigger and hips wider seems fairly obvious).

I have a related question:
do women who've given birth hit menopause later or earlier than women who've never had children?
 
For me a startling difference is in the face.
 
Some changes:
I
Women add body fat during pregnancy. This provides calories for nursing after pregnancy. When women suckle children, they tend to lose that fat. Mommies of bottle-fed babies tend not to lose the fat they added during pregnancy.

II. During pregnacy women's posture changes to accommodate the redistribution of wieght - ie, the center of balance shifts outward away from the spine, so the normal change is for the spine to change shape - kinda like becoming more S-shaped.

III. Hormonal changes affect how a woman feels. Example: During the first trimester it can also cause morning sickness, usually from excess acid secretion in the stomach.

There are a lot of other changes. But the thing to remember is that it should not be a purely subjective appraisal of how a woman looks to you. It really is about what is happening/has happened to the woman that is really more important.
 
jim mcnamara said:
Some changes:
I
Women add body fat during pregnancy. This provides calories for nursing after pregnancy. When women suckle children, they tend to lose that fat. Mommies of bottle-fed babies tend not to lose the fat they added during pregnancy.

II. During pregnacy women's posture changes to accommodate the redistribution of wieght - ie, the center of balance shifts outward away from the spine, so the normal change is for the spine to change shape - kinda like becoming more S-shaped.

III. Hormonal changes affect how a woman feels. Example: During the first trimester it can also cause morning sickness, usually from excess acid secretion in the stomach.

There are a lot of other changes. But the thing to remember is that it should not be a purely subjective appraisal of how a woman looks to you. It really is about what is happening/has happened to the woman that is really more important.


Your points are valid but I asked specifically about the face because I am puzzled by the biology of why the face would change after childbirth. Usually she looks more like the father. How does science explain that?
 
pivoxa15 said:
Your points are valid but I asked specifically about the face because I am puzzled by the biology of why the face would change after childbirth. Usually she looks more like the father. How does science explain that?
I think you are imagining it. I have pictures taken before and after giving birth to 2 children and there is no difference.
 
After giving birth, a woman looks... more like her husband?

I'm not following this at all.

- Warren
 
chroot said:
After giving birth, a woman looks... more like her husband?

I'm not following this at all.

- Warren
Maybe she grows a mustache, that could be due to a hormone imbalance.
 
Evo said:
I think you are imagining it. I have pictures taken before and after giving birth to 2 children and there is no difference.

No differenence in facial features at all?

Do you believe that after a couple spend decades of time together, their face becomes to grow more alike although not necessary strongly alike? IF so why?
 
  • #10
Evo said:
I have pictures taken before and after giving birth to 2 children and there is no difference.

Yes, but scientific principles don't apply to goddesses.
 
  • #11
pivoxa15 said:
No differenence in facial features at all?

Do you believe that after a couple spend decades of time together, their face becomes to grow more alike although not necessary strongly alike? IF so why?
No and no. Look at photos of elderly couples that hae been together a long time, there is no resemblance now if there was no resemblance when they first met.
 
  • #12
There's really two questions here. One is about post-pregnancy and the other is about couples in long-term relationships. They're completely separate.

I don't think it's any surprise if women look different after pregnancy; there's a whole host of changes that have happened. Note that, in addition to any metabolic changes, there are surely major lifestyle changes occurring. Your life often changes completely after having a baby - lack of sleep being merely one. I would look to these changes first.

As for childbirth and menopuase, I asked my wife, the childbirth specialist, if she knows of any correlation.

She said certainly: childbirth is dramatically affected by the onset of menopause. :smile:

But no, she knows of no correlation in the other direction.
 
  • #13
Evo said:
No and no. Look at photos of elderly couples that hae been together a long time, there is no resemblance now if there was no resemblance when they first met.

What about the clear case when two people from different race marry and after living decades together become more like each other through facial observation? i.e each become more like the people from the other race although it's still clear which race they are part of. I have seen it on multiple occassions. Have you?

What is the reason behind that?
 
  • #14
DaveC426913 said:
There's really two questions here. One is about post-pregnancy and the other is about couples in long-term relationships. They're completely separate.

I don't think it's any surprise if women look different after pregnancy; there's a whole host of changes that have happened. Note that, in addition to any metabolic changes, there are surely major lifestyle changes occurring. Your life often changes completely after having a baby - lack of sleep being merely one. I would look to these changes first.

As for childbirth and menopuase, I asked my wife, the childbirth specialist, if she knows of any correlation.

She said certainly: childbirth is dramatically affected by the onset of menopause. :smile:

But no, she knows of no correlation in the other direction.

Why did you bring menopuase into the discussion? Or does it change facial features?

I was thinking of childbirth during menstrual cycles.

You are right in that I have sorted of started another question which may be confusing for some new people.
 
  • #15
pivoxa15 said:
What about the clear case when two people from different race marry and after living decades together become more like each other through facial observation? i.e each become more like the people from the other race although it's still clear which race they are part of. I have seen it on multiple occassions. Have you?

What is the reason behind that?
Never seen that happen.

You know there are websites that also claim that people begin to look like their dog. It's just a joke.
 
  • #16
pivoxa15 said:
I was thinking of childbirth during menstrual cycles.

This might just be due to my limited sex education, but I've never actually heard of anyone giving birth during a menstrual cycle. Am I missing a potential kink factor here?
 
  • #17
I probably know less then you so I may be wrong. I was just thinking of childbirth during 'normal' childbearing years not when the woman has ran out of eggs.
 
  • #18
No offense intended, Pivoxa.
It's just that human females are equipped with a lifetime supply of eggs when they're born. There are certain times within the menstrual cycle that they can conceive. Once they no longer have a menstrual cycle due to menopause (which can last several years), they have a very rare chance of getting pregnant. After menopause, there's no chance, outside of medical intervention. (Trust me... I am on the ugly side of such a relationship. I love W more than anything in my life, but she can't have kids (she had 4 before we met, but that doesn't do me any good); I'd like to have one of my own... That's one reason that PF is so important to me... I can try to help someone along as if it were my kid, but with expertise from others to sort it out.).
There is nothing that I would love more than to have a child of my own, and introduce him/her to PF at the earliest possibel age. Man, what an awesome child that could be..

(And that would be Astronuc as the 'non-god' father...)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: gracy
  • #19
I'm really not sure why you think that childbirth makes people look more alike. Such is simply not the case. The ONLY thing I can think you might have in mind is that couples living together a long time share activities, environments, eating habits, etc., so they may gain and lose weight together, and become more similar in terms of things like body fat and wrinkles than when they first met, but that's not going to change basic facial features. After childbirth, about the only thing new parents will have more in common than before childbirth will be the matching bags under their eyes from lack of sleep.

Consider how much of a fuss people make over whether the new baby looks more like mom or dad. If they started to look alike, this wouldn't be discernable on the second or third child.

Related to Danger's post, it's worth a quick mention that when we hear of post-menopausal women undergoing IVF treatments and getting pregnant, they are using donated eggs, not inducing ovulation in those women who are no longer capable of ovulating.
 
  • #20
I agree with Moonbear. If there are factors affecting how a couple's facial feature would look, they are more or less associated with environmental influences or activities the two people share in common.
 
  • #21
pivoxa15 said:
Why did you bring menopuase into the discussion? Or does it change facial features?
moe_darklight asked about it in post#2.
 

Similar threads

  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
3K
Replies
25
Views
4K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
  • · Replies 12 ·
Replies
12
Views
2K
  • · Replies 10 ·
Replies
10
Views
3K
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
4K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K
Replies
23
Views
7K
  • · Replies 30 ·
2
Replies
30
Views
6K