I find it interesting to hear people associate stretch marks with weight gain during pregnancy.  Stretch marks happen when your body grows faster than your skin can keep up with.. it’s that simple.  If you keep your body hydrated, skin moisturized and stay consistent with both these things — the amount of weight you gain won’t lead to stretch marks because you’re setting yourself up so that your skin can keep up with it.

My mom got pretty bad stretch marks and she became pregnant with me when she was 17 years young and 105 lbs.  My grandma, my aunt, my cousins, all the women in my family got them pretty badly so I was under the impression that it was just “part of pregnancy” and assumed I would get them too.
**Side note: Stretch marks are beauty marks of what your body has gone through. In no way am I shaming or looking down upon the women who have them.  This post is just to share my experience in how I prevented them from happening to me.

I’m the kind of person who gets lost in research.  Once I start on something that’s of interest to me, I can’t stop looking through layers and layers of information.  I learned that applying sweet almond oil twice a day, drinking one gallon of water daily and drinking a cup of bone broth daily (sometimes every other day, this stuff is pricey) really worked for me.

I read up on the mama belly butters, tummy balms, pregnancy belly creams, etc.  They all seemed to have their own loyal fan base, but I wasn’t buying into it. I try to stick to things that have minimal ingredients.  At the end of the day, you can make your own belly butter with a mix of jojoba oil, coconut oil, shea butter, olive oil and beeswax.  But who has time for that?

I turned to sweet almond oil for two reasons:  1) it dries on the skin quickly without leaving that greasiness and 2) it has one ingredient: pure sweet almond oil (prunus amygdalus ducleis). 

Drinking one gallon of water per day, minimum.  I’ve always been a huge advocate with how much water helps with your skin, hair, nails, brain, everything. Drinking water keeps your entire body and your skin well hydrated. This keeps your skin supple and less prone to the tears associated with stretch marks. I feel like everyone should get into this habit anyway, regardless of whether you’re trying to avoid stretch marks or not.

Lastly, bone broth!  (Vegans, vegetarians and pescatarians, please don’t hate me)  I read an interesting book upon learning I was pregnant called Primal Moms, some of which I agreed with and some of which I did not, but I enjoyed the authors style of writing. Essentially what I read and came to believe about bone broth is that more collagen = stretchier skin, thus fewer stretch marks. Gelatin not only helps improve skin elasticity, but it also promotes wound healing (hello, postpartum)!

As I mentioned previously, just like working out for one week won’t get you the body you want.. doing these things here and there won’t get you the results you want.  Stay consistent with these three things day in and day out from the first day you find out you’re pregnant. 

Let me know your experience or your thoughts!