11. Not me but my sister. She had to have an emergency c section when she had my niece. Her mother in law said she wouldn’t be a “real woman” unless she had a vaginal birth.
12. My mom was talking to my paternal grandma while pregnant with me then winced because I was kicking her ribs. My grandma told her “swat it so it’ll know!” She wanted my mom to spank fetus-me through her own belly for kicking her. After my mom told us that story, “Swat it so it’ll know” became a common response any time someone was complaining about something.
13. My grandmother made a comment about my weight gain with my first pregnancy around month 5. For reference, I started severely underweight at 87 lbs and was closely monitored by my doctor because of it. At this point, I was nearing 125. When I told her that the OB/GYN was happy with where I was, she told me of her own doctor’s advice (in 1956), “Smoke a pack of cigarettes per day to keep your weight down. The baby can gain it’s own weight after birth.”
14. -sitting with my legs crossed wil cause miscarriage.
-don’t take a bath, itll cause a miscarriage.
-lifting more than 5lbs will cause a miscarriage.
-wearing tight fitted clothes will cause a miscarriage.
-spicy food would cause a miscarriage
-I worked retail. A stranger informed me that morning sickness and smell sensitivity isn’t real, while I was heading to the bathroom to throw up.
-also had a customer tell me that the baby isn’t actually affecting my bladder.
-had a third customer tell me to not drink tap water. Can’t remember why. Probably causes miscarriages.
-my cousin tried to tell me that I had morning sickness because its Gods way of telling a woman she isn’t ready for a baby.
-I had an anterior placenta, so we couldn’t feel kicks until close to 30 weeks. My mom was said there’s no such thing, and the reason we couldn’t feel kicks is bc I was fat.
Tldr; literally everything causes miscarriages and morning sickness is a lie.
15. My friend’s dad was a chiropractor. She told him I had had miscarriages. He told me, “No wonder. You will lose every pregnancy with a pelvis like that.”
Freaked me out SO MUCH and I guess I ruined the party by crying and leaving, and my friend was mad at me.
I have back trouble, yes, but I have three children living.
16. Oh I’ve got this: the lady at the counter in the village bakery told me that I should smear my face with SEMEN to counter pregnancy acne. It was the first time I’d ever met her.
17. Frozen cabbage leaves in the bra to help with swelling and pain due to breastfeeding. While it felt awesome for the whole minute or so they stayed frozen, they eventually turn to mush and make a mess.
Advice I wish someone had given me – get a mattress protector. Not just for when your water breaks. Carrying a big baby next to your bladder means just the act of rolling over in bed can cause leakage. And if you are too tired after the birth to take the baby to a changing table or the floor, you’re gonna want a layer of protection on your mattress. Soon as that diaper is off, baby will projectile poop. Sheets and walls can be washed, but mattresses can’t be. Poopsplosions are real. Prepare yourself.
18. My very first OB visit (first baby) handed me a book about month by month pregnancy and said that if I had any questions to just refer to the book. Then I said well what if the baby…she cut me off right there and pointed to the book and said “ah, ah, ah, it’s in the book.” I changed OBs.
For those who are asking my question was not in the book. I had questions about the baby being premature (my brother and I were born very premature) and I was going to ask her about it.
And my baby ended up being born 3 and a half months early and I had a lot of complications prior to that. Being high risk is not fun! But he’s healthy now :)
19. While pregnant with me, my mom was told that drinking beer would help her baby develop and be nice and chubby.
I was five weeks early and barely six pounds.
Yeah, it could have been substantially worse. Apart from being an early small baby, I don’t have any fetal alcohol related health conditions.
Conversely, when my grandma was pregnant with my mom (her first) in the 50s, the accepted wisdom was that smoking while pregnant was a good idea for first time mothers because it lowered the birth weight. Which was supposed to make labour and delivery easier. But low birth weight is extremely dangerous and makes the process harder. My mom was born two months early and weighed about two or three pounds. She was so tiny that my grandma dressed her in baby doll clothing and my mom spent her first month of life in the hospital’s NICU.
20. That if you try really hard and stretch a lot, you too can have a vaginal birth. Not actually a bad plan, as long as you don’t wind up not freaking dilating after 30 hour and have an emergency C section due to fetal distress. Because I just didn’t try hard and stretch enough.
