When a woman is pregnant, she is likely to be inundated with unsolicited pregnancy advice, much of it wildly conflicting – “alcohol? You shouldn’t touch a dropâ€, one may say, “A Glass or two of wine is perfectly fine†another may say! And there is little that scientific research does to dispel these many pregnancy myths that abound! Consider the following:
1. There is still no real solution to morning sickness. None of the oft suggested solutions such as ginger, acupuncture, vitamins, and anti sickness drugs are proven to work incontrovertibly.
There is no real or clear message to pregnant women as to what will really get rid of their nausea.
2. It is also seen that advice against having sex during pregnancy sometimes errs on the side of caution.
True, there are situations when abstinence is the best course, such as placenta previa or a risk of preterm labor along with a lower genital tract infection, and so on.
However, the widely held belief that having sex could actually induce labor, is again inconclusive when it came down to clinical research.
This Mayo clinic write-up offers fairly comprehensive information about sex during pregnancy – doubts about whether it can cause miscarriage, harm the baby, and the safety of other forms of sexual intercourse are all addressed.
3. As to alcohol consumption, we know that drinking a lot or binging is really bad for the fetus, but we keep getting conflicting information about light drinking.
The fact is that no one is going to drink during pregnancy just to find out what is a safe level, so doctors tend to err on the side of caution for the most part and caution women against any drinking during pregnancy. However for the most part it has been seen that even two drinks a week are actually harmless.
