"When I got pregnant my body started changing and becoming things that I had no control of," says Jodi Bickley.

"It was the first time it wasn't about me any more. It became so much bigger than me."

The spoken word artist developed bulimia at the age of 16 and more than 10 years later, she's in recovery and expecting her first child.

"I had something to look after and for the first time, I actually felt brave," she tells Newsbeat.

She's written a poem called Brave for a Radio 1 Surgery programme and in it she explains how her body has "survived battles".

Jodi, who is four months pregnant, writes: "My body is your safe place, I need to be as safe as I can possibly be.

"You are my favourite part of my body, I marvel at your jiggly egg shaped nest you've made in my belly."

BBC Advice has more information about eating disorders and links to places where you can get help.

BBC Radio 1Xtra's Words First season is celebrating spoken word artists from around the UK.

For Jodi, her pregnancy marks a time where she finally feels strong.

"I've battled hating myself for so long and feeling inadequate and not good enough and not special enough and not small enough," she says.

"And now I'm getting bigger and bringing this little thing into the world and I feel strong for the first time in my whole life. I feel better."

You can hear more from Jodi on the Radio 1 Surgery with Gemma Cairney and Dr Radha.

Becoming pregnant, either during or in recovery from an eating disorder is a "unique" experience, Dr Jane Morris says, and different patients will respond in different ways.

"We're always delighted to hear back from patients who have become pregnant," she says.

"It's often a hallmark of success and those of us who work with people who are very, very ill rely very much on these positive stories of success."

While there are many positive stories like Jodi's, Dr Morris points out there are risks as well.

She says that one of the biggest concerns is the potential for relapse after giving birth and says figures suggest that about 50% of people with anorexia will do so.

There is a similar risk of post-natal depression, she adds.

According to Dr Morris, it can be "very difficult" for people who have experience an eating disorder to get the help they need from their midwives and doctors to stop them from relapsing.

"It may be a case of having to be quite assertive," she says.

"We forget that as well as being a time of amazing success, triumph, development, growth, all the wonderful things that you want out of recovery, the new challenge is also something that can be a person's Achilles' heel.

"We probably do need a new culture of offering some kind of specific programme and package that people can appeal to and expect."

Newsbeat has asked the NHS for a comment about the services currently on offer, but they have yet to respond.

For Jodi, her story, like her poem has a happy ending.

"Although I'm not actively in the eating disorder, you always have that little thought in your background, 'I'm not good enough, I'm not small enough,'" she explains.

"I felt that I was battling against this cloud that had covered me for so long.

"This [the pregnancy] was my artillery. I was now carrying this special little thing and I was strong and I was going to beat it.

"It's been amazing. It's been a really amazing little journey so far."

Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram, Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube and you can now follow BBC_Newsbeat on Snapchat