Debunking Pregnancy Myths
Last week, I along with my girl gang planned to organize a baby shower for my friend Anamika. As this was her first pregnancy, we decided to make it a memorable experience for her. So along with my entire gang, I started the planning in full swing, deciding about the pink and blue theme that we would keep, mommy gifts, surprises and a lot many things. But little did we know that her very dear mom in law will roll the dice against us.
Now that my friend was expecting, not only she was under house arrest (under the guidance of dear MIL) but also her life took a 360 degrees turn. Nausea, cramps, mood swings were regular visitors to her but at the same time she was over the moon with the joy of baby coming. Seriously it is so beautiful to create a life within you. Also ladies, isn’t it kind of a nice feeling when suddenly you are treated like a delicate doll and everyone is suddenly extra nice to you? Everyone from Google baba to mommy blogs to relatives and the next door aunty have plethora of myths (oops advice!) for you.
Since dear MIL wanted the best for their grandchild, my mommy to be friend Anamika too went through lot of old wives’ tales. Few funny, few silly and some actually made her worrisome.
Killer papaya
The first of all was killer papaya. On the advice of next door aunty, dear MIL asked Anamika to stay miles away from papaya. Poor papaya which is otherwise known as a rich source of antioxidant nutrients such as Vitamin C and flavonoids suddenly became a harbinger of miscarriage.
Truth: Dear next door aunty with due respect, I am requesting you to expand your horizon of knowledge. It’s only unripe and semi ripe papaya that would be unsafe and that too, if your dear daughter in law eats kilos of it. So stop hitting the panic button, if she just ate one.
Fair and lovely, fair and handsome
Yes, you guessed it right. The second in the list of myths (kindly read as advice) is our obsession with fairness. Eating anything white in the morning and drinking milk with saffron will result in a fair skinned baby. Mommy to be Anamika now has to replace her morning ritual of chai with saffron milk and coconut water. (I don’t know about her fair skinned baby but surely at the end she will be blessed with glowing skin and good health). With her saffron consumption, the one who will be surely benefit is her local kiranewala for saffron is one of the most expensive spices in the world.
Truth: The skin colour of the baby depends on genetics.
Blue or Pink
The third in the list of myths is the sex of tiny tot. Dear MIL is really very interested in this. A favourite theory of elders is that if your belly is high, it’s a girl and if you are carrying your baby low, it’s a boy. A heart rate of less than 140 beats per minute means that you are having a boy while a heart rate of more than 140 indicates girl.
Truth: A big myth. The way your belly hangs depends upon your skeleton structure and also on the strength of your muscles.
Lunar Eclipse
Now that’s quite a belief that an eclipse was a bite on face of the moon. If a would be mom go out baby will have a cleft lips. So to protect a knife or metallic thing should be carried.
Truth: Cleft lip is because of genetic factors, poor planets have no role to play. There are various other myths like eat for two, don’t eat pineapples, no Chinese food, no sex, don’t travel and don’t work. ‘Just don’t advice me anymore’ says mommy to be! I am not raising a question on these myths but few of them actually don’t have any scientific reasons backing them. Hear them, follow them as long as them as long as they don’t hurt you. At the end, eat well, stay well and happy and that’s how the baby is going to be. Looking forward for more humour (oops advice) for Anamika…
Mansi says: I am a Delhi based personal blogger and a mother to a five year old. I love to express my thoughts through my writings. I express, share and write about relationships and parenting in modern times and everything in between. So far, I have blogged for various parenting sites and brands. I also blog at lyflikedatmansi.
