LARGER Hands & Feet After Birth

It is common to have larger feet after a child is born. I have gone up a half size with each child. It's just one of those things that comes with pregnancy and childbirth. Look on the bright side, you get to buy several pairs of new shoes!

After my 2nd child, I went from a size 10 to a size 11 in shoes. I just had my 5th child and thankfully my feet have not grown more!

Hi B., I laughed when I read this post. When I became pregnant with my first child ( 21 years ago) I weighed 98 lbs and my feet were a dainty 5 1/2 narrow. By the time I was nine months along, I was 52 pounds heavier and wearing my father's houseshoes. My feet looked like I had jumped off a sky scraper and splatted. No doubt the pregnancy weight forced the bones and ligaments of the feet to spread out. After I lost the weight, my shoe size was a full sixe larger. After the second child, I gained another half size and do not require narrow width! I wear sixe 7 shoes and my ring size went from size 5 to size 7. So there. You are not a freak of nature. Have fun shoe shopping!

Hi B.,
I experience the same problem after the birth of my son 13 years ago. I went from a size 8 med shoe to a size 9 med. All my rings were too small as well. I was in my early thirty's when he was born. It seemed as if a metamorphsis took place. I never went down to my normal shoe size again check with your doctor Because some women are just never the same. Hope your case is different.

Hi, well I cannot speak from experience with the feet, but as far as your hands go, I couldn't get my wedding bands back on till my son was likpose 6 months! I had to get them re-seized 1/2 size. So it is possible that your fingers maybe got a little bigger- mine did. I do not know anything about the feet getting larger. Hope this helps.

Hi Jessica,

My hands and feet both were larger after my first- My doctor said that if they had not returned to their regular size by 6 months then they weren't going to. I would give it a little longer and see. I ended up losing all my pregnancy weight, and still had to have my rings resized and my feet were never the same! I was a size 8 before my first, a 10 while pregnant and then went to a 9 where I have stayed for the last 7 years and two more pregnancies...For some reason, only the first pregnancy affected my fingers and feet...good luck!

My mom was a size 7 1/2 before having children and a 9 by the time she was done. Sometimes your feet do grow bigger.

I'm not sure about the hands... my problem with that was water... I did go up about a size and a half in shoes. I was told that pregnancy causes your arches to drop and therefore your feet to be longer. I don't know if that's true, but my feet are bigger for some reason!

I've never had my knuckles seem larger after my babies, but my feet grew a half a size with both of my younger two. Before kids, I could fit into an 8 with no problem. I am now a 9. That is actually fairly common, if I remember right (though my mom says her feet never grew with any of the four of us). I know after my second, it took about a year before I was able to wear my wedding band again. What was weird was that I didn't gain a lot of weight with him, though I did swell a lot. I gained more with my first and third, and I never had to quit wearing the ring with the third (even though while pregnant with him I weighed more than I've ever weighed in the past).

Hi B.,

Unfortunately you may never go back to wearing your regular rings or shoes. My son is 8 months and I can't wear my wedding rings and most of my shoes prior to pregnancy. So you may have to do as I've done and purchase new shoes and resize your ring. Sorry that I don't have better news. I guess somethings just expand during pregnancy and don't return to their orginal size.

Sorry hon but everything gets larger...the more babies you have the larger your feet will get. Before babies I could easier wear 10 1/2 to 11...now two babies later, I wear a 12. I think its called Reflexin. There is something your body produces while you are pregnant to allow the relaxing of your hip joints unfortunately it tends to relax all your joints.

You are still a new mom. I mean she is only 5 wks old. It has only been a little more than a month. See what happens once month 6-8 rolls around. Don't take drastic measures now. We expect everything to just jump back to normal. Take your time. Wear your rings on a necklace or get a stand in in the meantime-- buy one at Target or something. Wait a little. And yes, your feet can grow too but wait. Don't buy tons of shoes. Perhaps a couple and wait. I wore Crocs a lot and a few other shoes.

Feet totally normal. The hands may be hormones as that is less common. Give it a couple months. I will say my veins stayed in a state for two years after birth (I had a swelled one in my eye that was not from pushing, I guess it just held blood because it had stretched and took awhile). Then it went away. good luck, J

I laughed my head off the first time someone told me that your feet grow after pregnancy, it was the craziest thing i ever heard of, it just sounded like a old wife tale to me...well 4 kids and one and a half shoe size later, I beleive it! I dont quite know the biological reason because it not water retention.Mind you, right after delivery and for about 6 weeks or so, you do still carry extra fluids so you are swollen. But after that goes away,in my case, I am a 71/2 and in some cases 8 shoe size...one positive? that gives you the PERFECT excuse to go shoe shopping!!!!!

And men wonder why we have sooo many shoes. The more babies we have the more shoes we buy. They just go together. Our bodies are just reacting to having someone growing on the inside of us. It happened to me and I'm sure it happens to 95% of child-bearing women. Just try to embrace it and laugh. You can tell your kids and your husband that it is their fault of why you have so many shoes.

A one size increase in shoe size is common. unless you have a lot of weight to loose this may be your new size. So I would buy bigger shoes. Did you have any trouble with your blood pressure while you where pregnant or is it up now? I find that decaf green tea and 500mg of vitamin C help with the swelling if there is any

Hi B.,

Both hands and feet go up and down in size with your weight. If you haven't lost all your baby weight yet, your feet and hands may be a little larger. If you think you are swollen, you need to be drinking more water and you also need to be on a good, absorbable multivitamin. (Prenatals that doctors prescribe don't have a high absorption rate as a rule. If you need a recommendation let me know.)

God bless and Congratulations on your little one!

M.

yeah, that was a surprise for me too. My feet grew half size with each child.

In my first pregnancy, I couldn't wear my rings by 5 months and my feet and ankles were very swollen. I am small frame and gained 60lbs and had a lot of water retention. After the baby, I lost all the weight but still had to resize my rings but my feet went back to normal! I am pregnant now with my 2nd, have about a month to go gaining only 25 lbs, still wearing my rings and not much water retention! So it could be different with all your pregnancies! Good luck!

I've been told it's completely normal for shoe size to change because of the arches and the weight change put on them. They don't go back, so usually that's a permenant thing. Mine went up 1/2 a size too....the things we go through for kids!

hate to tell you this, but i had to have my rings re set, and buy shoes after my kids were born...my feet grew 1/2 size, and i couldn't get my rings over my knuckles, weird as it is..you might wait just a little bit, to see if there are any changes...but i have heard that lots of times people go up a shoe size or two...

Dear B.,
Yes you are right. I have two sons and when I started I wore a size 6 shoe. 9 1/2 years later I got pregnant again and afterwards wore a size 7. I grew 1/2 a size with each child. You are not imagining it. I welcome you to join our wonderful online community for women called www.TheHeartAlliance.com It is another wonderful resource for marvelous women. It is a part of The Heart Link Network, a female only networking organization devoted to linking women with new ideas, resources, products and service and especially the hearts of one another. www.TheHeartLinkNetwork.com