“I’m pregnant!” Those are words that for many women are very exciting, but
are also words that can instill fear and anxiety. Those words are often
followed by thoughts of limitations and concerns that life will be
drastically different over the next nine months. This is both true and
false. As a Certified Nurse Midwife and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner
in private practice in D.C. for 6 years, Lauren Gordon is here to dispel
many pregnancy myths that are often associated with those life-changing
months.
Myth number 1: Foods are restrictive
This is false. Barring those first few months when most women have some
nausea and food aversions, there are very few foods you can’t eat during
pregnancy. This is good news! I often have patients ask me about the safety
of certain foods they heard they weren’t allowed to eat in pregnancy – and
I’m always happy to tell them that they can eat almost everything. The few
foods you want to be careful of while you are pregnant are foods that can
cause foodborne illness. You want to make sure your meats and fish are well
cooked, and avoid raw fish. Similarly, you want to double check that your
cheeses are pasteurized (most are!). For extra safety, it is important to
wash your fruits and vegetables well. These precautions will help reduce
the risk of listeria or other illnesses that can be caused by foods. I like
to tell my patients that a good goal for eating in pregnany is to enjoy a
very colorful diet – a variety of foods is ideal because it gives you and
your baby many different vitamins and minerals to absorb and helps keep
your baby growing well.
Myth number 2: I have to stop running
This is also false. D.C. is a city with runners galore, and my pregnant
runners always want to know, “Do I have to stop running?” or, “Can I run
the 5k I signed up for before I found out I was pregnant?” The truth of the
matter lies in what your body is used to and how you are feeling. In and of
itself, the running isn’t usually the problem for most women. Often, women
experience some fatigue in the first trimester that can limit how much
running or exercise they feel like doing, and the larger belly in the third
trimester can make running more challenging. If you are feeling well and
have not been given limitations by your healthcare provider, you can run if
it feels good. Some pregnancy complications, such as bleeding or placenta
previa, make running not a good idea, and your healthcare provider will
discuss this with you. However, if you are experiencing an uncomplicated
pregnancy and are feeling well enough to go for a run, you can do it. A
good way to monitor your running is by making sure you can talk through
your running – if you are feeling out of breath, that is a good time to
slow down.
Myth number 3: Pregnancy is always uncomfortable
This can be true or false. Most women experience some sort of discomfort
during their first trimester – often nausea, possibly some food aversions
and sometimes bloating. But for most women, those symptoms are mild and
often resolve on their own by the end of the third or fourth month of
pregnancy. The second trimester is usually a nice time; as those first
trimester discomforts have resolved, you’ve gotten your energy back and you
aren’t feeling too big yet. Enjoy this time! Many women choose the second
trimester as the time to take a babymoon or other trips. The third
trimester can bring discomforts, such as back soreness as your belly is
getting larger, but often the anticipation and excitement of meeting your
baby can help you look past these aches and pains. I suggest to my patients
to try to look past the discomforts, because I find when women dwell on
them, it makes it much harder to enjoy pregnancy – and pregnancy can be
very enjoyable! There are many things you can do to relieve the ill effects
of pregnancy, such as take tylenol, use heating pads, get a prenatal
massage, go to prenatal yoga and even get acupuncture.
Myth number 4: I need to write a birth plan!
This is false. When my patients ask me about a birth plan, I tell them that
the goal of a birth plan is to help the expecting couple think about their
desires for the day of their baby’s birth. This is a very exciting day in
your life, and spending time ahead of that day discussing your desires,
fears and expectations is very important. It will help you communicate
together so that when the day finally arrives, you will both be on the same
page as far as what you are hoping the day looks like. I always suggest
that if patients do write a birth plan, that they share it with their
healthcare provider, so that if there are any things that cannot be
accommodated (for example, most hospitals have a policy that a laboring
mother must have IV access), those things can be discussed. But patients
are often surprised to learn that most of the things they put in a birth
plan are things we are already planning to do. So I tell my patients that a
written birth plan is not necessary, but if it would empower you to write
one, you should do so! When thinking about birth plans, the most important
thing to remember is to be flexible! We don’t know how your labor and
delivery will go, and our first priority is always to keep mom and baby
safe. Knowing that your plan may change is very important as you prepare,
so that if things go differently than you expected, you are not
disappointed or surprised, but rather can change direction and continue to
focus on this exciting day.
For most women who are healthy and low risk, pregnancy is another normal
life stage. Certainly, there are women with high risk pregnancies who will
have more restrictions, and even low risk women who will develop
complications, but pregnancy can be an enjoyable time – especially if you
don’t view it as a time frame full of restrictions. If you have questions
or concerns about your pregnancy, always bring them up with your healthcare
provider. And don’t forget to enjoy the ride!
