Pregnancy Beliefs

Nutan Pandit clears

Common pregnancy beliefs                            8

 

Breast Care                                                     9

 

Diets

Baljeet Gandhi discusses the importance of   11

Nutrients for a pregnant woman along with

The diet to be followed

 

Looking beautiful                                           15

……..during pregnancy, as suggested by

Sushma Hora

 

Care to Share

“Expectant” fathers                                        18

 

Glamour

The dream girl Hema Malini talks about

Her pregnancy                                     20

 

Fashion                                                            24

For Pregnancy

 

Two’s a couple .. 3 is a family                        26

Psychologist Amar Rewari on the

Experience that should be shared

Between the two parents

 

Exercises                                                         29

Purpose of Post-natal Exercises

 

Feeding                                                           33

Weaning and after

 

 

Pregnancy Beliefs

 

Myths	Validity	Fact
The pain is unbearable	False	In case of unbearable pain, nature’s safety mechanism makes one pass out, i.e., lose consciousness. In labour, women are rendered unconscious by drugs but never by pain. The right attitude to contractions can make it pretty easy to bear.
Have a spoon of ghee daily to Lubricate your nerves.	False	To make yourself supple, you need exercise, not ghee. Ghee will make you fat be active so that your joints are not rusty and creaky. Earlier, women worked in fields, milked cows, churned butter or ground wheat, hence they could digest the ghee..
The umbilical cord is attached to The mother’s navel.	False	The umbilical cord is attached to an organ inside the womb, called the placenta. The placenta is also called the after birth since it is delivered after the baby). The organ prepares and passes the food and nutrition to the baby, through the umbilical cord, which, on the other end is attached to the baby’s navel.
Push when in labour	False	When in labour never push until the doctor or nurse asks you to. If you begin to push when the mouth of the womb is not fully dilated, there is the danger of the baby’s head hitting against an unopened cervix (mouth of the womb), so that the baby’s head and cervix  become swollen and tender.
Walk when in labour	True	The best thing you can do is to walk when in labour. Gravity hastens the baby’ decline, and therefore shortens labour. Also, when you lie down on your back, the weight of your baby and uterus press on a major blood vessel called the vena cava hence, reducing the supply of blood and oxygen to you and your baby.
Eat for two	False	One does not need to eat for two people, but it is important to eat wisely in pregnancy. The baby grows like a parasite, in that it takes all that it needs, whether the mother has enough or not. So if you don’t eat well, you might end up with cavities in your teeth, and a run down feeling, which comes from lack of iron in the blood.
If you sit cross legged on the floor, it flattens the baby’s head	False	The best thing you can do, is sit cross legged, as this exercises the pelvic joints, the very joints that ‘open-up’ when the baby is being born. With regular exercise, the joints become flexible and open easily at birth. Little wonder sweeper women delivery easily. The baby is safely ensconced in the womb and gets no direct pressure on its head.
Baby gets suffocated if you pull in the stomach	False	The baby does not suffocate, since it gets oxygen through the umbilical cord, which is attached to the navel and the placenta on either end. If you pull in your stomach, the weight of the baby is borne by the pelvic bones, so that your stomach muscles get a respite from constant stretching.
Have a glass of milk and ghee or have badam milk before going to hospital	False	If you have started labour and feel like eating, eat something light. Once labour has established, if you have something heavy like badam, ghee, milk, you will feel like vomiting.
Be happy, read good books	True	If you are afraid or under stress, the chemistry in your body changes as different hormones are released. The baby, living within, senses these changes. It is therefore important to strive to be happy.
Bind abdomen after delivery	False	If you make a jumble of your clothes and fling them in the cupboard, they will fall on your face when you open it next. If you push your muscles back with a girdle, they will flop out again. It is important instead to do mild exercises for the first 40 days and more vigorous ones later to build back tone in your muscles.