I seriously feel for any woman who has been pregnant recently, is pregnant now or is considering it for the future. As we all know, the list of pregnancy 'rules' has expanded ten-fold in the last five years. Don't eat fish. Don't drink alcohol. Do exercise, but don't get too hot. Don't sleep on your back... Ah the joys of living in a 'risk' society.
To make matters worse, the Los Angeles Times discusses the dangers of 'fetal programming' or put more simply, all the ways a pregnant woman can cause irreparable, lifetime damage to her baby just by breathing. Now, researchers are arguing pregnant women do not just have to be worried about what they put into their bodies; subtle changes in the environment can also affect pregnancy outcomes.
"Mounting scientific evidence suggests that fetuses are surprisingly susceptible to outside influences, such as food, environmental chemicals and pollutants, infections, even stress. Under this theory -- called fetal programming -- babies are born not just with traits dictated by their parents' genes, such as brown eyes and olive skin. They may be born with a tendency to develop asthma, diabetes or other illnesses based on what their mothers ate and were exposed to during pregnancy".
As if you weren't sufficiently freaked out, some scientists are also saying that exposure to supposedly 'harmless' doses of certain substances can still affect the fetus if the ingestion or exposure to a particular substance occurs at particular stages of fetal development. So basically, eating one too many tins of tuna at one particular point in the pregnancy may cause irreparable fetal damage. Even emotional trauma or stress during the pregnancy can 'perturb' fetal programming.
How does a pregnant women navigate pregnancy under this pressure? The author of the article seems to contend that based on the evidence, pregnant women should be empowered with information. I agree with this view in theory; however this is an overly simplistic means to achieving a healthy end. The women who are most able to absorb this sort of information (or get it at all) are women who are educated, financially secure and statistically 'older'. If you don't have a good health provider, have never read a book about pregnancy in your life or live in an unsupportive domestic environment, the chances that you would be able to maintain an awareness of all of these 'risks' and act on them responsibly are slim at best. Most women have to seek this sort of information out themselves; obstetric appointments (for those women that have them) are appallingly short. Unless you have private care, there is not alot of time for questions. Whilst the onus is inevitably placed on pregnant women to protect a fetus, some responsibility should also be attributed to doctors and other prenatal healthcare providers in providing ALL pregnant women with the tools to have a safe pregnancy.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-fetal12nov12,0,2140947.story?page=1&coll=la-home-middleright
Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts
Pregnant in Britain? Get paid to eat.
Well, we have now reached the zenith of our discussion about pregnancy and nutrition. Called the 'Health in Pregnancy Grant' According to the BBC News, British pregnant women will be paid £200 from 2009 during their 29th week of pregnancy as an enticement to eat well for their babies.
Whilst there is no way to establish whether pregnant women will actually spend the one-off payment on 'good' food, women who would like to receive the payment must visit with a health practitioner to discuss prenatal nutrition before receiving the money. The measure has been put in place as a result of high infant mortality rates among women of lower socioeconomic groups.
Sure it's great that the British government wants to implement a program to help undernourished pregnant women. Yet, it is very clear to me that the British government is more interested in 'saving babies' than helping women to maintain good health for themselves, first and foremost. How is giving women money to women just over 10 weeks before birth going to make that much of a difference? If pregnant women cannot afford to feed themselves well during pregnancy what will happen after the baby is born?
There are a lot of factors that contribute to low birth weight and maternal diet is only one of them.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6984122.stm
Whilst there is no way to establish whether pregnant women will actually spend the one-off payment on 'good' food, women who would like to receive the payment must visit with a health practitioner to discuss prenatal nutrition before receiving the money. The measure has been put in place as a result of high infant mortality rates among women of lower socioeconomic groups.
Sure it's great that the British government wants to implement a program to help undernourished pregnant women. Yet, it is very clear to me that the British government is more interested in 'saving babies' than helping women to maintain good health for themselves, first and foremost. How is giving women money to women just over 10 weeks before birth going to make that much of a difference? If pregnant women cannot afford to feed themselves well during pregnancy what will happen after the baby is born?
There are a lot of factors that contribute to low birth weight and maternal diet is only one of them.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6984122.stm
What is an 'authentic' experience of pregnancy?
I have to say that after posting 'Pregnancy is not a time for indulgence' http://babybumpproject.blogspot.com/2007/08/pregnancy-is-not-time-for-indulgence.html
I did not anticipate such strong reactions to this woman's story. In fact, the post has been the source of a bit of a blog commenting war in which the woman who so generously provided her story has been castigated for sharing her experience. I've felt uneasy about this whole situation. As the moderator of the blog, I feel like everyone is allowed to say what they think, however I think nasty comments just defeat my purpose in setting up this site: for women all over the world to talk about pregnancy without reservation and without judgment.
As some of the responses to this particular post bordered on hurtful, I thought maybe I shouldn't allow them to be posted. However, in the end I decided it's not my place to censor anyone and instead, it would probably be more productive for all of us if I take a moment to tease out some of the anger shown toward this particular woman who was actually quite brave in saying (in defiance of popular beliefs about pregnancy) that when she was pregnant she did not overindulge.
I'm not here to say who is 'right' or 'wrong'. I'm just interested in the fact that some people are suggesting that this woman's experience of pregnancy is not 'authentic' because she doesn't talk about having stretch marks and cravings. I think this is clearly a source of tension when it comes to talking about pregnancy weight and prenatal nutrition. Isn't funny that when it comes to celebrities we are all quick to jump up and down about how unfair and ridiculous it is for everyday women to feel the need to try achieve an unachievable body shape, yet, when an everyday woman discusses her positive health changes in pregnancy, everyone gets critical?
I've found in my own research speaking to women that it's not celebrities that are meaningul in women's lives, it's mothers, sisters and best friends who are our greatest sources of inspiration, advice and of course, serve as our bases for bodily comparison. I wonder if the critical comments toward this woman who lost her baby weight quickly are really a reflection of other women's bodily anxieties.
For a very long time, it was only in pregnancy that women were allowed to be 'fat' and not conform to the ideal of slenderness that so plagues our current popular culture. Now, however, as the recommended weight limitations for pregnancy are becoming more stringent and doctors are limiting the amount of calories pregnant women are meant to consume, I think that is a real source of anxiety for women who feel guilty for eating chocolate or having cravings or not being able to do exercise in order to stem their overall weight gain. The idea that women should have stretch marks and crave chocolate is so culturally entrenched when a woman says she hasn't experienced these things, it makes the women who do feel inadequate understandably. However, your experience of pregnancy does not necessarily have to be written on your body in order to be legitimate.
Anyway, my point is this: let's address the real source of anger and not criticise. Everyone's experiences of pregnancy and motherhood are different. If your experience differs from those of the various women I have posted about, please write in and share. We cannot learn from one another through anonymous, nasty comments.
I did not anticipate such strong reactions to this woman's story. In fact, the post has been the source of a bit of a blog commenting war in which the woman who so generously provided her story has been castigated for sharing her experience. I've felt uneasy about this whole situation. As the moderator of the blog, I feel like everyone is allowed to say what they think, however I think nasty comments just defeat my purpose in setting up this site: for women all over the world to talk about pregnancy without reservation and without judgment.
As some of the responses to this particular post bordered on hurtful, I thought maybe I shouldn't allow them to be posted. However, in the end I decided it's not my place to censor anyone and instead, it would probably be more productive for all of us if I take a moment to tease out some of the anger shown toward this particular woman who was actually quite brave in saying (in defiance of popular beliefs about pregnancy) that when she was pregnant she did not overindulge.
I'm not here to say who is 'right' or 'wrong'. I'm just interested in the fact that some people are suggesting that this woman's experience of pregnancy is not 'authentic' because she doesn't talk about having stretch marks and cravings. I think this is clearly a source of tension when it comes to talking about pregnancy weight and prenatal nutrition. Isn't funny that when it comes to celebrities we are all quick to jump up and down about how unfair and ridiculous it is for everyday women to feel the need to try achieve an unachievable body shape, yet, when an everyday woman discusses her positive health changes in pregnancy, everyone gets critical?
I've found in my own research speaking to women that it's not celebrities that are meaningul in women's lives, it's mothers, sisters and best friends who are our greatest sources of inspiration, advice and of course, serve as our bases for bodily comparison. I wonder if the critical comments toward this woman who lost her baby weight quickly are really a reflection of other women's bodily anxieties.
For a very long time, it was only in pregnancy that women were allowed to be 'fat' and not conform to the ideal of slenderness that so plagues our current popular culture. Now, however, as the recommended weight limitations for pregnancy are becoming more stringent and doctors are limiting the amount of calories pregnant women are meant to consume, I think that is a real source of anxiety for women who feel guilty for eating chocolate or having cravings or not being able to do exercise in order to stem their overall weight gain. The idea that women should have stretch marks and crave chocolate is so culturally entrenched when a woman says she hasn't experienced these things, it makes the women who do feel inadequate understandably. However, your experience of pregnancy does not necessarily have to be written on your body in order to be legitimate.
Anyway, my point is this: let's address the real source of anger and not criticise. Everyone's experiences of pregnancy and motherhood are different. If your experience differs from those of the various women I have posted about, please write in and share. We cannot learn from one another through anonymous, nasty comments.
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