OMG Pregnancy! Chapter 1 – First Trimester

Pregnancy is most difficult phase for a woman???

Giving birth is like a second life to woman???

There are so many notions and views about pregnancy. Why pregnancy is considered as a tough phase? is it really true that pregnancy is difficult? Or is it the people, society and ignorance that implants a perspective in women that pregnancy is tough?

After I started my own pregnancy journey, I also connected to so many friends and relatives and tried to understand their journeys! Based on my experiences and information I gathered, I understood many things and now trying to comprehend all that in this article.

People give instructions without understanding scientific basis

People give too many instructions about how a pregnant woman should behave. “do not bend, do not carry weights, do not let your belly touch any objects, do not climb stairs, do not eat junk, eat double amount of food by assuming that one share is for fetus, etc”. After I did some research, I realized that only few suggestions have scientific basis. However, people give instructions without actually understanding the scientific basis. Why a pregnant woman shouldn’t climb stair, sit on bike, bend or carry weights? Because, when weight gets added to body, centre of gravity shifts and that can lead to imbalance of the body. So there are chances of her falling down. However, what if she is someone who have not gained any weight during first trimester? Then the instructions are not applicable. It all depends on how her body is. Similarly, Woman has to eat food normally and include quality food in her diet to supply fats and vitamins to developing baby. Quantity of food doesn’t matter! Moreover if she really eats double the amount of food, especially sugars, she is going to develop diabetes! Weight gain has to happen, but how much gain a pregnant woman has to gain? That is very subjective and that depends on her actual weight. Overweight woman has to gain less weight and underweight woman has to gain more weight.

There is shame and fear around informing other people about miscarriage

“do not tell anyone about your pregnancy during 1st trimester” this is common instruction a pregnant woman hears from her well wishers. Logic is, there will be more chances of fetus getting aborted in the first trimester. Well wishers implant fear and shame in pregnant woman asking her not to talk about abortion or chances of abortion. But what’s wrong in informing people around about pregnancy and in case if fetus gets aborted, what’s wrong in again calling and informing people around about abortion? Miscarriage is a universally known secret!

Lack of acceptance of symptoms of pregnancy

Women find it ok to talk about vomitings, increased apatite and changes in diet habits. But they find it difficult to talk about symptoms like changes in body, spotting, increased urge to urinate, constipation, etc.

Doctors – The Anxiety Nurturers

Not all doctors fall into this category, but there are many doctors who pray on anxiety of pregnant women. I heard several stories. Pregnant woman and her family members generally will have anxiety about condition of the fetus. There are people who also like to know exact delivery date and time especially the ones who believe in astrology. Uncertainty about delivery and condition of baby is something that creates anxiety in people. There are doctors who pacify such anxiety by doing unnecessary tests, prescribing unnecessary hormonal medication to safeguard pregnancy and demand patient that she has to visit doctor several times in a month. (I am not talking about cases in which there is need of hormonal treatment and extra care). Is it really needed to monitor and safeguard pregnancy? By default woman’s body is designed in such a way that she can protect fetus from many kinds of threats and baby gets nurtured automatically even if there is no intervention in most of the cases. that is the reason why even laborer woman, inspite of working as laborer, successfully delivers healthy baby! Is it really necessary to know delivery date and time? Is it really needed to measure dimensions of fetus each week, compare to so called normal measurements and track?

Sexual Abuse – by Doctors, Lab technicians and Nurses

I heard stories of woman who unknowingly opted to undergo some unnecessary tests such as internal checkups. I heard stories of how they got sexually abused and got inappropriately touched.

Conclusion: Mind your own pregnancy!

Ultimately experiences, stigma, notions and ignorance contribute to the perspective that pregnancy is a difficult phase. In natural setting, without any human interference and when a pregnant woman is bold enough to follow her gut and not listen to suggestions, self aware and self compassionate, pregnancy is a very self sufficient, sustainable, easy and natural journey in most of the cases and doesn’t need any expertise, knowledge or safeguarding! Only guidelines she has to follow is what her body conveys to her. If she finds difficulty in bending, that’s what her body says, she has to stop! If she is comfortable, she can even dance or jump! No tests can measure condition of her body and baby better than he r own observations about what’s happening in her body!

Points in articles cannot be considered as relevant and applied to abnormal cases such woman who need extra care, monitoring, medical support. Example: IVF, someone with PCOD, genic problems, hormonal issues, late age pregnancy, bleeding and physical injuries during pregnancy, etc