foot growth during/after pregnancy

[SexPanther]

Sounds stupid...probably is.

I have 2 lady friends who swear up and down that women's feet increase in shoe size after being pregnant.

I've tried to explain that this may be a wive's tale and that I have never been taught or heard such a thing. I have offered that perhaps the perception of foot growth was 2/2 venous stasis and increased LE edema during pregnancy. This was shot down too.....it's not swelling, it's actual growth according to them.

So have any of you guys ever heard of something like this? I'm pretty sure I'm right but I want to be able to tell them they are FOS and have concrete evidence to back me up; I don't even know where to start looking, can't find anything in any of my old notes or books I have.

Expert opinion please.

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[Wednesday]

I have heard of this too, but attribute it to feet getting flatter due to lots of pressure on the arches. I doubt it's actually "growth" since our bones are pretty much fused by adulthood. Now my 14-year old patients, they are a different story. Maybe someone here has actual data though.

 

[luvOB]

I have also heard of this! Plus, my mother swears she grew an inch during her pregnancy (and sustained it!)

 

[militarymd]

On average....increase of 1/2 to 1 shoe size...

related to lower arches in foot....hormone related changes.

 

[SexPanther]

On average....increase of 1/2 to 1 shoe size...

related to lower arches in foot....hormone related changes.

Thanks for the responses. I found a couple of references online about hormonal related ligament laxity (as mil alluded to). I told them they are 1/2 right, they may wear a larger shoe size but their feet didn't actually "grow."

 

[cali-ob]

Bone growth, joint relaxation, arch loss, whatever! I have always had flat feet, so it's not the arch loss in my case.... b4 having children I wore a 5.5-6 depending on the shoe. I now where a 7-7.5! Maybe my feet are just fat! but it's not just girth, it's length too, and I wasn't 14 when I had my children.
I have no study, just my personal story.

 

[ms. a]

I agree that it is a hormone-related ligament relaxation thing, and that it is certainly no old-wive's tale! I though it was just a bunch of bull, insisting that my feet never changed, because I never had to by new shoes. That was until I put my unforgiving ski boots on the winter after I delivered. A thousand dollars and a new pair of boots later, I now have to admit that pregnancy did, indeed, change my shoe size.

 

[MichiMO]

Changed for me too...had to buy new dansko's...the prepregnacy ones definitly DO NOT fit.