Most people know an old wife tale or two about pregnancy, I've definitely heard a few myself – my favourite being, “Don’t stand in front of the microwave when it’s on, the radiation will hurt the baby". Really?, do people actually believe these theories?
I thought I would fill you in on a few that I came across during both my pregnancies. You will probably have heard of some & believe them to be true – so let's take a closer look.
Morning Sickness
More like round the clock sickness. I don’t think I was ever sick in the morning – probably because with my first pregnancy I was sleeping until noon most days (the joys of life before babies!). Don’t worry, it got its own back when I was pregnant with my second – sickness & a toddler is not at all pleasant, let me tell you! When I thought of morning sickness I thought it only meant physically vomiting. How wrong was I? For me it meant feeling nauseous 90% of the time for about 4 months & throwing up at completely random times of the day and night. There was no rhyme or reason to it & on one particularly memorable occasion I found myself throwing up in an airplane toilet. On the plus side the lovely air hostess did give me an entire row of seats to myself so I could lie down – silver linings eh?
Pregnancy Glow
That lovely dewy look, you know the one I mean? Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but yeah that’s either sweat or excess oil. All those lovely pregnancy hormones tend to make your skin produce more oil, which makes you all fabulously lovely & shiny. And don’t forget that with excess oil comes spots! Team that with the strain of carrying a baby through one of the warmest summers we had seen for a while & I my friend was a beautiful, sweaty, shiny mess.
Heartburn
So, suffering from heartburn whilst pregnant means your baby will have hair - and lots of it! – Not in my case. With both pregnancies my heartburn started before I even knew I was pregnant. Actually, second time around it was the reason that I took a test. I was still finding packets of Rennies a year after my first son was born, I had them stashed in every conceivable place – you just never know when heartburn will strike. And guess what? My babies had hardly any hair; my oldest was basically bald until he was about 7 months. I know of people whose children have been born with a full head of hair and they've never suffered with heartburn; it’s just your luck people!
Cocoa Butter
Using cocoa butter will stop you getting stretch marks – Wrong! Obviously moisturising regularly is going to help your skin stay nourished and help it’s elasticity but really, if you’re going to get stretch marks you’re simply, Going.To.Get.Stretch.Marks. You can spend an absolute fortune on all kinds of lotions and potions, but I truly believe that you can be genetically predisposed to get stretch marks. Look at your mum, sister etc , if they have them then it’s pretty likely that you’ll get them too. My stomach is stripier than a tiger after having 2 babies & I absolutely hate it, but I just have to keep reminding myself that I grew two beautiful, healthy babies in there and I should be proud of my stripes. And so should you.
Great Hair
Your hair will be thicker/shinier/healthier than ever before – It absolutely will. You will have a gorgeous, glossy mane and you will love it so much, then your baby will come out and so will your hair. You will literally lose it like nobody’s business. With my second pregnancy I didn’t think my hair got that much thicker, but now that I’m almost 3 months postpartum and still losing hair, I think it’s safe to say that I must’ve had a whole lot more than I ever imagined.
With all that being said. That makes pregnancy sound a hell of a lot more negative than I’d intended. Don’t get me wrong it’s definitely not the easiest thing to go through, in my case anyway, but it’s by far the best thing we women will ever do. There are plenty more myths about pregnancy but these 5 are just my experience, which honestly wasn’t all that bad. Trust me, I’ve done it twice & hopefully will again (if David lets me!).
What are some of the things you’d heard about pregnancy that you found to be completely untrue?