I decided to Google the words ‘myth’ and ‘pregnancy’ one night and in less than a minute I got 3,920,000! Yes, there is a lot of misinformation for expectant mother’s out there!
I decided I wouldn’t even get into the myths relating to getting pregnant. These myths are usually propagated by males. Let’s clarify the most common myths I’ve heard in 25 years of medical practice.
Gender prediction myths. One of the major issues on everyone’s mind: is it a boy or a girl? If you want to check the Chinese lunar calendar kept at the Institute of Science in Peking, you can go to www.holodeck.com. You can listen to folks who say carrying high is a girl, low is a boy (or low a girl and high a boy); or carrying in front it is a boy, wide it is a girl; hairy belly means a boy; dark nipples mean a boy; babies heart rate over 140 means a girl, swinging a ring on a string in a circle means a girl, and on and on. The bottom line is: you can’t tell the baby’s gender by how the belly protrudes or what color the Drano is after mixing it with mom’s urine. If you really want to know the sex of your baby, get an amniocentesis or an ultrasound.
Making labor and delivery easier myths. When you get pregnant you find out that everyone is an expert and everyone has been to medical school. Seasoned mothers soon learn that no two babies are alike and every labor experience is unique, but you sure hear a lot of advice along these lines: start exercising as soon as you get pregnant or, alternatively: don’t exercise. Really neither is true. Exercise can be continued during pregnancy but routines may need to be altered. The best rule of thumb is to get in great shape before you get pregnant. I have also heard that eating spicy foods or having wild, passionate sex cause labor to begin or: “my doctor examined me that day and my labor started right afterwards”. In truth there is a definite chemistry involved. It is probably true that if you are ready, almost anything can start labor. Another common myth states that you can predict how difficult or long your labor may be on the basis of your mother or your sister. Most of the time this just doesn’t pan out and no one person has had enough births to “make a study”.
“Old wives tales.” Quite a few center around gender identification. There is the “heartburn and hair” connection. The “arms over the head myth”; the “you shouldn’t bathe” myth (yuck); birth marks and too much coffee falsehood and they go on and on. Each culture or nationality has their own collection of these special tales that they are passed from generation to generation. I still hear the “veiled birth”, and “hair coloring causes birth defects” tales all of the time.
Another major theme of pregnancy mythology revolves around sex and pregnancy. Foremost, among them include “you can’t have sex during pregnancy”, followed by “you can have sex during pregnancy”. Most of these myths revolve around things like “it will hurt the baby” or “it will hurt the mother” or certain positions are not safe. Generally, there are a whole constellation of changes in the mother, which will make intimacy a much different experience not the least of which will include changes in the mother’s mood and libido-- not to mention the father’s mood and libido! The bottom line is love is how things got this way in the first place, and continuing love and sex during pregnancy is almost always safe, except under very narrow circumstances, which should always be discussed with your physician.
“Stretch marks are avoidable”. Boy, I have seen almost every concoction imaginable smeared on women’s bellies in an attempt to prevent these normal consequences of the pregnant state. I’ve observed thousands of pregnancies and it has become very clear to me that everything from coconut milk to utter balm is a myth and that there are certain hereditable characteristics of each individual’s abdominal skin that will determine how it reacts to pregnancy.
Another large body of mythology surrounds the miracle of labor and delivery. “You must lie on your left side!” True, there may be a slight theoretical advantage to the left side, but most authorities agree, the best kind of labor includes shifting from one side to another or even sitting/standing during parts of the labor in appropriate circumstances. Another labor myth says “the sooner the baby is out the better!” In reality, nature probably does the very best job of timing the labor based on a natural sequence of chemical and structural changes that take place just before parturition. If we are going to tell mother-nature she is “wrong”, we usually better have a good reason.
A really perplexing common myth states that more painful “natural” birth is better. Pain is quite a negative factor and distances mother from the true enjoyment of the very real miracle that she is experiencing. There is a body of evidence that confirms that the alleviation of pain in pregnancy actually shortens labor and therefore makes it a safer experience for mother and baby.
Like all of the most important things in life and human endeavors, pregnancy and birth spark the imagination and give rise to a myriad of stories and myths. It is said that a myth is born from the excitement of a true “hero’s journey”. I challenge you to find a more important example of a “hero’s journey” than bringing new life into the world.
By Henry R. Bishop, M.D.