Pregnant women should eat for two
While it is true that women may need to increase their caloric intake slightly when pregnant, however overeating can be harmful to both the woman and the fetus.
Women should gradually increase calories throughout the pregnancy:
First trimester: No extra calories are necessary.
Second trimester: An additional 200 – 300 calories per day is recommended.
Third trimester: An additional 300 – 400 calories per day is the recommended..
Women must ensure that they are eating nutrient-rich foods.
Craving has meaning
Gender is determined by craving
You may have any craving during pregnancy or you may have no craving. Your craving don’t determine gender of baby. If yo want to know gender of baby, you may ask your doctor. Doctor may tell you the gender by ultrasound and NIPT.
You must give into everything you crave (Mexico)
If you crave cake and you didn’t eat cake, your baby will be cake face.
Do not itch when you crave something (Arab culture)
If you gave into craving your baby will get a birthmark shaped like it.
Give into all cravings or else the baby will have a handicap (Egypt)
You must eat everything you crave otherwise aby will be handicap.
You should cut out all caffeine when pregnant
You can take caffeine during pregnancy, but with limitations, moderation is the key here.
The risk
Caffeine crosses the placenta and increases maternal catecholamine levels, which is stress hormone.
There is limited evidence that it might be associated with miscarriage and preterm labour.
Safe limit
Median consumption of caffeine which is approximately 200 milligram per day is considered safe.
Coffee: So when you make a cup of coffee with 1 tea spoon of instant coffee it may contain 100 milligram of caffeine while with with 1 tea spoon of regular coffee it may contain 140 milligram of caffeine.
Tea: A tea whether green or black may contain 75 milligram of caffeine.
Cola: A can of cola may contain 40 milligram of caffeine.
A 250 milliliter can of energy drink may contain 80 milligram of caffeine.
Chocolate: Chocolate also contains little amount of caffeine.
You cant eat sea food in pregnancy
Limit the intake
Oily fish:
– Oily fish contains Dioxin and PCB . Limit oily fish intake to no more than 2 portions a week, such as salmon, trout, mackerel or herring.
Tuna:
– Tuna contains Mercury. Limit tuna steak to no more than 2 (about 140g cooked or 170g raw) or 4 medium-size cans of tuna (about 140g when drained) per week.
– You can have 2 tuna steaks, or 4 medium-size cans of fish, as well as 2 portions of oily fish per week.
Shell fish:
Cook through all types of shellfish before consuming.
– Shrimps
Avoid
Avoid taking swordfish, marlin, shark.
What you eat during pregnancy can affect your baby’s food allergies
Your pregnancy palate doesn’t hold quite that much power.
You do not need to avoid eating peanuts when you’re pregnant. As it does not cause peanut allergy in newborn as previously thought.
Evidence:
Currently there is no conclusive evidence to validate the reduction of allergies or food aversions experienced by child in future If mother reduced or eliminated those foods during the pregnancy of respective child.
Food reaches baby after breaking down
Any food you eat has already been broken down into amino acids, glucose and fats by the time it crosses the placenta and reaches your baby. That’s hardly enough to affect your little one’s tastes.
Pineapple and papaya can bring labour pains
Pineapple
Safe amount
They key here is moderation. You can take one serving of pineapple a day which is one cup (165g) Or 2 slices, 3 inches in diameter and 3/4-inches thick.
Bromelin
Pineapple contain enzyme bromelin which can cause uterine contractions in animals, only if applied directly to uterus. But even in animal studies it simply caused uterine contraction but not labour. There have been no studies in human.
Avoid fruit core
Bromelin is more concentrated in core of the fruit, while we take outer fruit.
Conclusion
Taking concentrated bromelin tablets may cause uterine contractions but taking fruit in right serving size does not affect pregnancy.
Papaya
Ripened papaya is not dangerous
Normal consumption of ripe papaya during pregnancy may not pose any significant danger.
Unripen papaya can cause tetanic uterine contractions
However, the unripened or semi-unripened papaya (which contains high concentrations of the Latex that produces marked uterine contractions) could be unsafe in pregnancy.
Safe amount
You can take one serving of ripe papaya a day Which is one cup(145g).
One glass of wine while pregnant is OK
No amount of alcohol is safe during pregnancy. Every thing in moderation doesn’t apply here.
Effects
Alcohol use during pregnancy can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs), which are range of lifelong physical, behavioral, and intellectual disabilities.
No safe limit
According to the CDC, “There is no known safe amount of alcohol to drink while pregnant.”
Pre-pregnancy & All three trimesters
Alcohol consumption is risky throughout pregnancy, especially in the first trimester, when it can cause the baby to have abnormal facial features. Growth and central nervous system problems (e.g., low birthweight, behavioral problems) can occur from alcohol use anytime during pregnancy, since the baby’s brain is developing throughout pregnancy.
Finding out pregnancy:
When you usually find out you’re pregnant, you’re about four weeks along at that point, but you’ve only been chemically pregnant for two weeks. Often the embryo hasn’t even implanted yet. You should let that worry go but avoid alcohol the remainder of the pregnancy.
Better safe than sorry
It is never too late to stop alcohol use during pregnancy. Stopping alcohol use will improve the baby’s health and well-being.
Eat liver to correct anemia
Vitamin A
Liver contains very high doses of vitamin A, which can cause birth defects in baby.
Fist 60 days
Risk is much higher during initial 60 days of pregnancy however risk is still there beyond 60 days throughout the pregnancy.
Daily requirement
The daily requirement of vitamin a is 2400 international unit for general population.
Liver contains high doses of Vitamin A
While a single serving of 3 ounces of liver a contains 22000 international unit of vitamin A, which is 7 to 9 times higher than our daily requirement.
Vitamin A deficiency
Even if some one is deficient in vitamin A and are on vitamin A therapy, it should not exceed 10000 international units per day.
There is no demonstrated benefit of taking higher doses.
Natural sources of vitamin A
Our every day diet contains enough vitamin A to fulfill the daily requirements like single half cup serving of spinach contains 2000 international units while single half cup serving of raw carrots contain 1500 international units of vitamin A.
Besides dairy and other vegetables like red bell peppers, tomatos and other fruits also are rich source of vitamin A.
Conclusion
So if you are planning pregnancy or already pregnant then avoid liver or vitamin A supplementation.
Heartburn means that the baby will have a lot of hair
As the pregnancy advances, growing size of the baby, pushes stomach toward chest and relaxation of sphincter surrounding food pipe may cause some of acids from stomach to go up food pipe to cause burning.
Morning sickness only happens in the morning
Despite its name, morning sickness can strike at any time of the day or night. In fact, nausea and vomiting are limited to the morning in only 2% of pregnant women. It should simply be called “all-day sickness”.
Having sex during pregnancy can hurt the baby
No abstinence for low risk
If you are regular low risk pregnancy, there is no reason to abstain from sex. As sexual intercourse and orgasm are not associated with any increased risk of pregnancy complications or preterm birth.
Special high risk situations
However if any complication arise during the course of pregnancy which necessitates to abstain from intercourse, your care provider will inform you. Some of such conditions are placenta previa, preterm labour, vaginal bleeding, and many other conditions.
Intercourse with term pregnancy
Sexual activity in last week of pregnancy might be associated with the onset of labor. Therefore, in the absence of complications in term pregnancy, sexual activity can be considered as a natural way to prevent post term pregnancy.
Flying while pregnant can cause a miscarriage
Generally safe
Generally, airline travel is safe if you’re pregnant. However, but there are things to be taken cared of.
Blood clot risk
Pregnant women are at at higher risk of developing blood clots when you’re seated for long periods of time specially if travel is more than 4 hours. To prevent this from happening, make sure you stand up and walk the aisle every couple of hours. Take water every 30 minutes. You can also wear compression stockings to help maintain blood flow. You doctor might advice you blood thinning injection to be taken just before flight.
Infection prevention
Generally people immune system is aligned with the place you live. When you travel new place, you may be at increased risk of infection. It will be helpful to wear mask while travelling and utilizing water and food only after ensuring the adequacy of sanitation.
Antenatal record
Take your antenatal records, just in case if you have to go to emergency health services.
Pregnant women shouldn’t pet cats
It’s safe
Petting a cat is perfectly safe when you’re expecting.
Cats feces:
“It’s not the cat — it’s the cat feces. Cat feces can carry toxoplasmosis, a potentially harmful disease.
Toxoplasmosis & risk in pregnancy
Toxoplasmosis, an infection caused by a parasite that can be found in cat feces. If you’re infected, you’ll feel like you have the flu, but your baby is at risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, brain damage and vision loss.
Intervention
Ask someone else in your household to clean the litter box while you’re pregnant. If that’s not possible, wear gloves and wash your hands thoroughly after the task.
You can pet cats
Women do not need to avoid cats during pregnancy as long as they follow this precaution.
You’re Healthy, So You’ll Have An Uneventful Pregnancy.
Reproductive age women are mostly healthy and young. At booking visit women are classified as low risk or high risk depending on their risk factors as known by their history and physical examination.
If you start healthy, your pregnancy can still be complicated by any risk arising denovo. Its important to make sure compliance with antenatal visits, and do all the necessary testing to know if in case some risk is developing, so it can be managed and taken cared of by necessary interventions.
It’s unsafe to reach your arms over your head or hang washing on the line, when pregnant
It’s safe
Reaching up above your head and hanging washing on the line is safe.
The myth
The myth claims that if you reach your arms over your head, the umbilical cord could get wrapped around the baby’s neck. It is unlikely that it will affect your baby’s umbilical cord in any way.
Cord around neck
After 20 weeks, when the baby starts getting very active, the cord can get wrapped around the baby’s neck, however it rarely causes any harm to the baby.
Four out of every 10 babies are born with the cord wrapped around their neck, and it usually doesn’t pose any problems.
Pregnant woman should not exercise
Ideally, pregnant women should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity every week.
An aerobic activity is one in which you move large muscles of the body (like those in the legs and arms) in a rhythmic way.
Moderate intensity means you are moving enough to raise your heart rate and start sweating. You still can talk normally, but you cannot sing. Examples of moderate-intensity aerobic activity include brisk walking and general gardening (raking, weeding, or digging).
You can divide the 150 minutes into 30-minute workouts on 5 days of the week or into smaller 10-minute workouts throughout each day.
If you are new to exercise, start out slowly and gradually increase your activity. Begin with as little as 5 minutes a day. Add 5 minutes each week until you can stay active for 30 minutes a day.
If you were very active before pregnancy, you can keep doing the same workouts with your obstetrician’s approval. However, if you start to lose weight, you may need to increase the number of calories that you eat.
Pregnant women should sleep only on their left side
Sleeping on your stomach
Sleeping on your stomach or tummy-down position is okay until your baby bump start appearing in your stomach, and that typically is around 12 weeks.
Sleeping on your back
Sleeping on your back is not recommended after 16 weeks because growing uterus can put pressure on venous system and can increase risk of swelling in lower limbs, varicose veins, hemorrhoids and constipation.
Also sleeping on back in third trimester that woul be after 28 weeks can be linked with sudden death of fetus Due to insufficient blood supply.
Sleeping on your sides
Sleeping on the sides during pregnancy facilitates blood flow, ensuring that vital organs and the baby receive the nutrients and oxygen. .
During the second and and third trimesters, sleeping on either side preferably the left, if possible is considered by some experts to be ideal for you and your baby-to-be.
Why left side is preferable
Traditional advice is to sleep on left side. Reason behind this is important vessels are more towards right side, a slight tilt upto 30 degrees takes pressure off from these vessels.
Putting a pillow between your right side of back and the mattress as insurance. That way, even if you do roll over, you’re on a bit of a tilt.
If you wake up sleeping on your back
Very few people stay in one position throughout the night. Do not stress if you accidentally find yourself on your back on waking up.
The reason behind the warnings
As your uterus gets larger usually by the time you’re 20 weeks that’s five months along, it’s big enough that it lies on top of your big vessels supplying to heart. Since heart doesn’t get enough supply so it can’t supply your body and growing fetus in return, and there is potential increased risk of stillbirth for those who slept the entire night on their back.
Additionally blood will be static and high pressure in lower part of the body, increasing the likelihood of swelling in the ankles and legs, varicose veins, and hemorrhoids.
You shouldn’t dye your hair when you’re pregnant
While it’s a good idea to minimize your exposure to chemicals when you’re pregnant, evidence suggests that hair dye is perfectly safe when you’re expecting.
Your baby will arrive on their due date
Due date doesn’t have magical value or its not written on stone. Most of the deliveries happen between 37 to 41 weeks.
Some deliveries may happen even before 37 weeks, they are called preterm deliveries.
Vaginal delivery not possible after cesarean section
After careful risk assessment, vaginal delivery is possible after cesarean section. Mostly induction of laour is avoided.
During labour continuous monitoring is in place, to avoid risk of scar rupture.
If your mother had an easy pregnancy and delivery, so will you
Not fact:
It could be wish but not fact.
Mother’s delivery:
The power of genetics doesn’t apply here. The history of your mother’s birth has no influence on your birth.
Baby sizes
Baby sizes are influenced by a lot of factors and genetics is one of them. However if some countries or families are having big babies for generations their pelvises are also broader to accommodate such babies, so having a big baby doesn’t necessarily mean big baby.
An epidural will prolong labor
An epidural may shorten first stage and while it may prolong second sage, Overall the effect remains same on the total duration of labour.
You doctor may change the dose of epidural to decrease its effect on second stage.
You need to prepare my nipples for breastfeeding
There is no evidence that you need to prepare or toughen your nipples before birth.