7 Fat Lies (Myths) Mothers are Told During Pregnancy
7 Fat Lies (Myths) Mothers are told During Pregnancy. This is the second time I will write on this topic. I will have to repeat it here again because the pregnancy lies are still selling even as we are advancing in technology.
In our first post, I stated the three fat lies (myths) sold in pregnancy and breastfeeding. Mothers are buying them hook, line and sinkers. These lies are nothing other than myths. Myths are unfounded or unverifiable teachings that have been accepted by some groups of people and they believe and practice them.
If you are a young girl, that is, a mother to be, you need to read this. Know this and be guided. Soon they will come your way and sell them to you. If you are a young Mom, you should also read this post and find out how many lies have been sold to you. How many have you bought? How many have you resold to your friends?
To us, those who have completed procreation and those who are going for child visits (omugwo), we are the heads of the markets in the selling of these pregnancy myths. Let us stop! Here are the lies:
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If you are pregnant, don’t sit down near an Imbecile (Lori iro)
This is actually one of the myths sold about pregnancy. They made us believe that if you are pregnant and sit with abnormal children that they will take over your unborn child and make it look like them.
I said ‘white lies’. What if you are pregnant and sit with a Whiteman, will your baby look like him too?
Giving birth to an abnormal child happens by chance and sometimes an error that could have been corrected, medically. It does not come as a result of sitting with an innocent imbecile or an Autism.
Let me shock you, my friend works in ‘Auti’ school. These types of children that their parents abandoned at birth. She was working with them even as a single girl and later got married to the owner of the organization.
She had 3 pregnancies and carried them inside that Auti hall. Her children are the most beautiful things to behold.
So, if this myth is real, why didn’t she give birth to an Autistic child or an imbecile? Have a change of mentality.
2. Use Safety Pin on your Cloth to close up and Safeguard the Pregnancy – Lori iro
This myth is the highest of them all. And some women are ready to argue out their great grannies from the grave to prove the point that the practice is necessary for the pregnancy to be safeguarded against the witches and wizards.
When next you see a pregnant woman, take a closer look at her belly. You will notice a safety pin attached to the cloth on her belly.
The people who sold this myth told them that the safety pin closes up pregnancy and prevents witchcraft attack against their baby and also prevent miscarriage.
It is a big fat lie!
But wait! Is there any relationship between a safety pin and pregnancy?
There is none. But I found out something. Someone started using a safety pin during pregnancy and every other woman copied it.
The story of safety pin in pregnancy is closely related to the story of saltwater birth and Ebola. A woman who was having regular miscarriages visited a native doctor.
The native doctor made charms for her and gave her a safety pin to peg on her cloth. She was told to use it and go everywhere.
The woman carried her pregnancy to full term and delivered. She began to tell her fellow women how safety pin had helped to safeguard her pregnancy.
This was how the lie started selling and pregnant Moms began to buy. But she didn’t include that the native doctor gave her the pin.
She was given the pin by the native doctor. Now, I want to ask you, the pin you peg on your stomach, who gave you? Is it the same native doctor? Mtcheeew!
7 Fat Lies (Myths) Mothers are Told During Pregnancy
3. Stop Breastfeeding Your Baby no matter the baby’s age if you become pregnant
This lie is the chief of them all.
There is a belief that if a nursing mother conceives and continues breastfeeding, the child will fall sick. It is believed that the infant will become sick because the child is feeding on the unborn fetus. Put it plainly in their language; “the child sucks the blood and fluid of the fetus in the form of breast milk”.
It is said that the child is no longer ingesting breast milk but the unborn sibling’s blood. The nursing mother is encouraged to wean the child immediately no matter the age.
This is a fallacy!
This is a myth!
And this is a big fat lie!
I will share my experience here.
‘Six months after I had my first son, I conceived again. I received all manner of counsel from friends and relations which included; not sleeping with the baby in the same bed at night and discontinuing breastfeeding. But I did not give in.
I visited my Ob/Gyn. He is not a toddler in the field. He is a professor in the matter of conception and delivery. His counsel was; “your baby is very tender. Do not wean him at this stage. If you do, he will fall ill. Continue to breastfeed him even as you are pregnant. You can even breastfeed him until you give birth and you can continue breastfeeding two of them if you wish.”
A Mom breastfeeding her newborn and the older baby (Image used for illustration purposes)
READ: TRICKS ON HOW TO BECOME PREGNANT AND GIVE BIRTH TO A BOY.
I went home and did as my Obt had advised. I must confess that breastfeeding while pregnant is not an easy task. I was advised to take my rest, take routine drugs, and feed well.
Amazingly, I didn’t experience ‘morning sickness’ as usual because my body thought it was only breastfeeding (subject matter for another discussion). Six months into the pregnancy, I weaned my son. Then he had clocked one year. It was not an easy task as my doc had said but the result was desirable. My baby looked chubby and healthy’.
Breastfeeding while pregnant does not make a child fall sick. What makes a child sick is the lack of proper care and feeding. Weaning a child should be a planned and gradual thing. Before then, the child has adapted to any other breastfeeding replacement. There has never been any medical proof that the breast milk of a pregnant mom contains some amount of secretion from the fetus.
Dispel this myth! Stop selling it and stop buying.
7 Fat Lies (Myths) Mothers are Told During Pregnancy
4. They say; Don’t sleep with your baby while pregnant, it Causes him or her Fever
(Image used for illustration purposes)
This is another myth sold to pregnant Moms. It is another big brother, closely related to the first myth.
Just as I was advised to discontinue breastfeeding; I was also told not to share the same bed with my little baby. They said it is to avoid sibling rivalry. This is to say that they will become jealous of each other and one will think evil against another.
They also teach that the hotness of the body associated with pregnancy can be transferred to the little baby when both sleep together and this will cause the child to have a fever.
False! False! False!
There is no such thing as a physical or spiritual battle between your little baby and the unborn one. You are what you believe! There is nothing like the transfer of fever.
Mild raised body temperature during pregnancy especially in the first few months is normal. Moreover, the hotness of the body is not contagious hence, it cannot be transferred to another person.
7 Fat Lies (Myths) Mothers are Told During Pregnancy
5. Baby that will Stay will stay – Zukwaanu ike
Another myth very important that I should talk about it here is the talk that the baby that will stay, will stay. They will always come up with this unfounded logic when you have a miscarriage, resulting from stress and anxiety.
Sister, listen, the baby will not stay again if you get pregnant again and continue in the stress. Don’t be like me who learned the bitter lesson the hard way.
I lost two pregnancies due to stress and my advisers kept telling me not to worry that the baby that will stay for me will stay no matter what, while my doctor was advising I should have absolute rest.
What am I saying? If you are the type that normally spots during pregnancy, zukwani ike. Always give yourself bed rest at that early stage of pregnancy. Don’t do any work until after your first trimester.
As I will always say, no two women are the same, even two sisters. The workings of our body system are not the same. There are some women who may need total bed rest once they conceive for that pregnancy to hold. If they do otherwise, it will threaten and fall off.
6. Eating Snail meat during pregnancy will make your Baby Droll Spit (Will U Keep Quiet)?
This is another myth sold to pregnant Moms which many people have bought. They say when a pregnant mother eats snail meat when she is pregnant, the baby will be drolling spits always.
Mothers, is it true? Your baby drolls spit at a stage, is it because of the snail meat? Me, I have never eaten snail meat all my life but my children can get awards for spit drollings when they were much new.
7. When you Eat Bat meat during Pregnancy, Your baby will be Hairy – (Asi ocha)
I heard this very one from my mother. When my sister gave birth to her first daughter and she was so hairy at birth. So, my mother gave the credit to the bat meat she bought for her during pregnancy.
Who are we to dispute it then? I know if I had told her then, she would twist my mouth. What did I know about man and woman that I should have the audarciy to contribute?
However, this is a pure myth. Giving birth to hairy baby is not by what you eat during pregnancy. It runs in the family. A bottled-skin father and mother must give birth to a bottled-skin child and vice versa.
The Sum
We have come to the end of the 7 Fat Lies (Myths) Mothers are Told During Pregnancy. These ones we mentioned are just but few. You can tell us other ones you know under the comment box or chat us directly via WhatsApp.
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