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Johana Colina
English 1301
9 November 2022
Rhetorical Analysis on “Understanding and supporting women with eating disorders”
Eating Disorders is a struggle known to affect many people around the world of any age

and shape. Some eating disorders people deal with are Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa,

Binge Eating Disorder, and other specified Feeding or Eating disorders. Although this is

common in teenagers and adults, not many talk about what pregnant women go through while

growing into their motherhood selves and the challenges they face of getting an eating disorder

after giving birth. Approximately 5% of women will experience an eating disorder during

pregnancy (Martínez-Olcina et al., 2020), and around 15% of women at some point prior to

pregnancy (Bye et al., 2020) In Abigail Easter and Amanda Bye's article “Understanding and

supporting women with eating disorders: Pregnancy, birth, and motherhood” they support the

argument of providing evidence of how each eating disorder affects women going into

motherhood and what other challenges they face after giving birth due to getting an eating

disorder. The usage of ethos, pathos and logos is important in this article because it gives us a

visual and understanding of what women go through.

First of all, an example of ethos would be the author themselves–Abigail Easter and

Amanda Bye and the resources they chose. Abigail Easter is a postdoctoral researcher for the

Section of Women’s Mental Health, Health Service and Population Research Department.

Amanda Bye is a research associate in the Department of Psychological Medicine and Division

of Academic Psychiatry. They both have research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology

and Neuroscience and both attended King’s College at London, UK. The authors are considered

to be ethos because without them attending school and studying every specific topic, they

wouldn’t know what to research and write about. The resources they chose should be reliable

information because they already know what to look for and what to study to be able to

accomplish this article. Amanda and Abigail greatly supported their argument by providing
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multiple examples of studies of multiple women who have personally gone through their

argument, facts about eating disorders in pregnant women, which leads to them being a

trust-worthy resource.

Second of all, there’s an example of pathos in the article– “Box 1: Case Study” (pg27).

This Case Study gives us an insight of a pregnant lady's experience with an eating disorder: “I

hoped that there would be a standard question, ‘Have you ever had problems with eating?’ and I

prepared myself to make a confession. She asked me lots of questions, but the question I

longed for never came, so my problem remained a secret” and “, then ecstatic with joy to be

pregnant again after ten months. Life seemed perfect. But that’s when the problems really

began: just when I was least expecting it, all those fears about food and body image crept up on

me again” (Box 1: Case Study). A woman giving it her all to have a safe pregnancy, yet is still

going through unseen mental and physical challenges for months. It’s a perfect use of pathos to

make the ready feel sympathetic towards her. Another example of pathos is in the beginning of

the introduction, which can connect to audiences emotions: “ The transition to parenthood can

be a challenging time for women with eating disorders, who can experience a greater risk of

adverse obstetric outcomes, higher levels of depression and anxiety, and difficulties with infant

feeding”. This appeal is another great example of pathos. They’re providing information on other

symptoms pregnant women may experience due to having an eating disorder which is the main

argument of writing this paper.

Third of all, there are three examples of logos in the text– implications for preconception

and perinatal period, nutrition and gestational weight gain and psychological health during

pregnancy. Implications for preconception and perinatal period states “ studies suggest that

eating disorders can have a substantial impact on several domains related to pregnancy and

motherhood, and demonstrate the need for tailored advice and support across the perinatal

period” (pg 26). Nutrition and gestational weight gain states “ studies have shown greater and

faster gestational weight gain among women with eating disorders (Watson et al., 2014).” (pg
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26) and psychological health during pregnancy states “ The MoBa study (Watson et al., 2014)

found remission rates in pregnancy of between 29-78% across the eating disorder categories”

(pg 25). These three examples of logos use facts and statistics which creates a direct message

to prove to the audience that the research they did can be trustworthy, since it was scientifically

proven with multiple women's reports and studies. Furthermore, they do support their

argument effectively, considering the examples unveil statistical data that applies to logos.

These examples support the argument of the article because they’re giving percentages of how

many women who are pregnant are affected by having an eating disorder. These three

examples are great examples of providing researched data to make logical connections with the

audience.

In summary, Abigail Easter and Amanda Bye’s article is a perfect example of following

along with its argument by providing multiple examples of ethos, pathos and logos. The authors

are perfect examples of ethos, since they wrote and researched everything to be able to write

this article. The personal article of the pregnant woman's experience of dealing with an eating

disorder to be able to reach the audience's emotions and the introduction of the article by

providing other symptoms that the women may deal with are perfect examples of logos in this

article and lastly, the multiple scientific studies done by certified researches to support the

authors argument, which are all examples of logos. The first paragraph in the article is an

appeal to pathos, logos and ethos. It gives the readers a percentage of how many pregnant

women are affected by an eating disorder which is logos, it shows pathos by showing other

symptoms an eating disorder comes with make the audience feel sympathy for the struggling

pregnant woman and ethos by providing citations used by the authors themselves to provide

facts that what they searched is right.

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Work Cited

EBSCOhost Research Platform: EBSCO. EBSCO Information Services, Inc. |

www.ebsco.com. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2022, from

https://www.ebsco.com/products/ebscohost-research-platform