Midwife extreme or sensible?

[dyscochick]

Who in their right mind would tell a pregnant woman she couldn't eat chocolate?!?! argh!!!! I really hope my midwife doesn't spout any nonsense, that is if I ever get to see one!

 

[willowwisp]

Oh you can eat that. She probably thought the same as me the supermarket refrigerated thing.

I did try to talk to her about it but I got told she knew best and cut off!

She only does a clinic one morning a week, so I can be unavailable on that day in future I think!

 

[dyscochick]

oooh that would really get my goat! I would def be avoiding her if i were you!

 

[anna_shepherd1]

Hello ladies! Here's my advice...Gardening- continue doing it until you get too big and feels like its a strain or it tires you out...dont over do it basically. Cycling- would agree with midwife only because you never cycled before. Pate- non began pate is bad when pregnant because its raw meat usually and it has a higher risk of salmonella i doubt your pate has that same risk. Caffeine-try not to drink too much...please remember this is just my personal thoughts. You know your body better than anyone else and I honestly believe it would do us all more damage if we worried about how many bars of cadbury dairy milk we've had the unnecessary worry can't be good for pregnancy. Happy jellybean growing xx

 

[katey123]

LOL Didn't she anything about the nuts you eat?

She tried, she asked what nuts i ate and when i didnt mention peanuts she did, to which i rather tartly replied that peanuts aren't nuts, their legumes! I was suffering a loss of patience at this point!

I can understand listeria re vegetarian (i.e containing egg or dairy) ready made pate, but the home made and
Instantly eaten stuff I do there is no more risk of listeria than if i made a fruit salad!

Yes Willow I agree with you , there's the tiny risk with shop brought especially from a deli counter, but if your making it fresh and eating it fresh it's not possible for there to be a risk , I personally think your diet is amazing and if your LO comes into this world enjoying all that nature has to offer and being taught by you , what amazing lunch boxes you can create .
Your midwife sounds to text book to me I would only take her advise if it agrees with my own common sense . All the best xx

 

[BellaRiven]

We had a few surprises during our first midwife appointment and they have been playing on my mind a bit. What do you guys think?

My midwife has banned me from:

1. Gardening because next door have cats. I LOVE gardening and I have veg and what not growing, I will admit that we battle with next doors cats digging up and crapping in our plants, but I have solved the problem with lots of pointy canes in our beds and I always wear gardening gloves. - This is true but if your wearing gloves as long aqs it doesn;t leak through you should be ok.

2. Cycling. After asking whether I cycled and hearing me reply no, (I don't even have a bike) I got a lecture on how dangerous it is to cycle whilst pregnant, even in the early stages. Apparently the same goes for high impact type gym stuff? - They say if you don;t do any strenuous exercise before your pregnant you shouldn't whilst you are pregnant, this is because your body isn't used to it and your body will be doing enough ust growing a baby as it is I was tol the same at my first appointment

3. Eating chocolate or anything with any source of caffeine in it. Baring in mind I'd already told her I don't drink coffee and I'm a vegan, so I have a small amount of raw vegan chocolate, but it's a once a week event not daily. I even have very low blood pressure, so it's not like I'd have a dangerous reaction to a small amount of occasional caffeine. - I cut down my caffiene intake to 3 cups of caffiene tea a day and then the rest is Decaf tea, if you stop it straight away you may find you get headaches and such like.

4. Eating vegan pate, even home made, because it has 'raw' ingredients. Most of what I eat is raw, it's all nuts/seeds/fruit/veg, there are no meats or animal products at all. There isn't anything in it that I don't eat in anything else either? - All pate is banned vegan or not this is because of the ingrediants in it - http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/ate/pregnancyandchildbirth/204285.html

I'm not sure how much of this is sensible advice and how much of it is rather extreme? Looking at threads on here lots of people seem to go to the gym, eat chocolate and just basically get on with life and are just fine? She came across as pushy and bossy and when I tried to ask questions to clear things up I got the 'I know FAR more about all this than you do' cut off line so I didn't get the answers (specifically to the food questions) that I wanted.

TBH if you have a question I would ask on here, most of the girls are awesome at this stuff

xxx

 

[ms_dove]

Oh dear

Sorry to hear you've had such a bad time with your midwife.

I've been really lucky with my midwife. When I mentioned being vegan she didn't really express any concern, and mentioned that she was happy to not have to go through the importance of eating lots of fruit, veg, and grains. The only thing she mentioned was not to go to crazy with the amount of peanuts I eat, and perhaps switch to almond butter rather than peanut. She seemed really clued up based on my experience of NHS staff! As for the pate (which I asked about) she said if it's home made from fresh ingredients or from a sealed container or tube, and it's not been open for longer that a couple of days, then it's completely safe.

We mentioned having a cat, and she just said to 'be careful' when dealing with the litter'. It was nice not to feel patronized when she said that, as I really didn't feel like a lecture.

I didn't ask my midwife about cycling, but I've stopped riding my bike on the roads now. This is only because I had an accident on it last year, and haven't really felt very safe on it since. I have been riding down the lovely flat cycle path on an old railway line to the next shopping area for my groceries though, and have felt fine. It's something I really enjoy and it must be good for me to get some proper fresh air in my lungs, especially as I live in Manchester on a main road!

As for gardening, I helped some friends with some a couple of weeks back and felt good for it! An afternoon outside soaking up some vitamin D, and some light exercise surely can't do any harm, especially if as you say, you wear gloves and be sensible about it. Most people know their own bodies and have the common sense not to get really mucky and then not wash! Tut.

About the caffeine, I was advised to 'limit' my intake.

It sounds like you're doing everything just fine. Midwives like yours seem to do more harm than good. Surely she's just going to create a really bored and grumpy set of mums!

I could really eat a bit of raw chocolate right now!

 

[HelenJ]

it seems wayto extreme to me.

as for gardening if you don't wear gloves there could be mineals in the earth that cld actually harm your baby and deform it so yes be aware of always wearing gloves.

as for chocolate and or cafeine it is never proven that it is bad in moderation (several studies have actually shwed that there was no difference between women drinking up to 2 cups of coffee daily vs no cafeine. but over a certain amnt of cafeine makes babies smaller)

cycling is only natural and normal and I find this so odd. I use a cargobike daily which weighs 45kilos excluding my kids and I will use this until I give birth because I cycle my son to his preschooll playtime (whch is approx 15mins from my house and I don't have a car). cycling is healthy as long as yoou don't bike extremely fast or excessively and is considered one of the safest way to go when pregnant (also walking and swimming).

as for raw food. Only washed properly is fine, no raw milk or raw cheese or too much liver or smoked food and no fish like salmon because fish that eat other fish etc can have led poisoning or something like that.

this modwife sounds pretty crazy to me sorry.

 

[dyscochick]

Helen I'm sure it's when you meant but you meant unpasturised milk and cheese for 'raw' didn't you? Cos they are fine. Certain types of fish like salmon accumulate heavy metals which can be toxic so advice is to limit your intake or keep away from those types of each, other types like pollock are fine.

 

[Hope81]

You should avoid all liver not only limit it. Even small quantities of liver contain huge amounts of vitamin A.
Salmon is fine to eat up to 2 portions per week according to our guidelines here anyway. It's also in the list of the recommended fish that's exceptionally good while pregnant ( in moderation ofc) also according to Norwegian guidelines.