Saturday, May 05, 2012

Active in pregnancy is healthy

I couldn't believe that a pregnant woman who was jogging,  was called a selfish cow, by another woman. People have some weird ideas about pregnancy and what women should do while pregnant. 

The saying about eating for two is a fallacy. My OBGYN used to say don't eat for two, eat twice as well. Also in all the books I've read, it says that if you were active and exercised regularly before pregnancy you should continue to do so while pregnant, with some exceptions such as contact sports like hockey. But sports like jogging, with your doctors blessing is a big help while pregnant. 

Other weird misconceptions is that if you're petite, you won't be able to give birth to a normal sized child. I beg to differ. Despite being all of 5' nothing and weighing about 98 lbs when I first got pregnant, I was able to deliver a 7lb baby girl as my first and a 9lb 10 ounces baby girl as my second. I delivered both vaginally without any complications, epidural or forceps. 

Then there was the idea that I wouldn't be able to breastfeed my children because I didn't have large breasts. Well after giving birth I had much bigger breasts and they provided sufficient nourishment to both of my daughters the first few months of their lives, along with healthy antibodies. 

Another misconception, as long as you breastfeed, you won't get pregnant. Well it might be true for some women, but in my case, although I breastfeed both daughters, I had my period again 3 months after the birth of my first.  The down side to this is that the days where my period was heavy I hardly had any milk to feed my baby. 

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