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A: It’s true—your belly isn’t the only thing expanding during your pregnancy. A pregnant body produces the hormone relaxin, which causes your pelvic ligaments and joints to loosen, and also relaxes the ligaments in your feet, allowing the bones to separate a bit. This, plus the fact that your increased weight puts more pressure on your foot arches, causing them to fall, makes your feet grow.
On average, you’ll go up half a shoe size. Plus, our feet tend to swell from retained fluids. Any change in size from fluid retention will disappear about a month post-delivery, but your new shoe size is here to stay.
So don’t celebrate getting preggo with a pair of stilettos—they may not fit you in another nine months.
