So it's not an old wives tale, after all. Pregnancy really does alter your foot size and shape. According to an article in Science Daily, the arch of the foot flattens during pregnancy, due to the extra weight and laxity of the joints.
The new University of Iowa study published in the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation claims the arch change may be permanent. It's not all in your mind.
"I had heard women reporting changes in their shoe size with pregnancy, but found nothing about that in medical journals or textbooks," says Neil Segal, M.D., UI associate professor of orthopaedics and rehabilitation. "In order to study this more scientifically, we measured women's feet at the beginning of their pregnancy and five months after delivery. We found that pregnancy does indeed lead to permanent changes in the feet."
Of the nearly 50 women studied, 60 to 70 percent experienced changes to arch dimensions five months following childbirth, with their feet becoming longer and wider.
On average, a woman's arch dropped and her foot length increased between 2 and 10 mm, primarily during a first pregnancy. Further pregnancies did not appear to radically alter proportions.
It also means that pregnancy takes its toll on our bodies in other ways, giving us a higher risk for pain or arthritis in feet, knees, hips and spines than men.
Further research will now be carried out to see whether these changes to foot structure contribute to health problems in later life, and what if anything can be done to safeguard a woman's "musculoskeletal health" during pregnancy.
Did your feet radically change after childbirth? Spill it.
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