As much as we know about the human body, the reality is that each and everyone of us is so uniquely designed that no two people are just alike.  And this is especially true with pregnancies. While your friend may have been throwing up from the moment they conceived until the day they delivered, you may feel anything (and everything) but nauseated.

The typical pregnancy symptoms of morning sickness, fatigue. cramping and aches in the lower abdomen, sore breasts and even headaches or strange cravings aren’t always the only tell tale signs of pregnancy. In fact, many women feel none of those things and describe early pregnancy as a phase where they just felt ‘off’ or ‘different,’ in some weird unexplainable way.

The following are some strange pregnancy symptoms that you may not find in the everyday pregnancy manuals. But they can mean you are pregnant just the same!

• Strange dreams. Plenty of women report having strange dreams during the days and weeks between conception and finding out that they are pregnant. These dreams could be caused by rising hormone levels, or could be a little sign from your intuition telling you that things in your life are changing. It could also mean your fatigue is causing you to reach the deeper levels of sleep where more realistic and imaginative dreams tend to evolve from.
• Food aversions. Everyone talks about craving things from pickles to ice cream. But what about food aversions? For many women the earliest pregnancy symptom is a strong aversion to certain foods. One day, your favorite food is pasta salad, and then suddenly the next day the sheer site of the pasta makes your stomach turn.
• Heightened sense of smell. Suddenly the buckets of cologne your co-worker wears, or the mold in your shower, or the smell of your significant others feet seem to be swallowing you whole. You might even have a problem with smells that you used to love, such as your own perfume or regular cleaning products. It is true that during pregnancy your sense of smell is heightened, and this can occur quickly as an initial pregnancy symptom pretty early on.
• Increased sex drive. It’s true! All those raging hormones might just make you feel more erogenous than ever before. And you might want to enjoy it before sex becomes cumbersome.
• Snoring and a Stuffy Nose. What you might think is a cold, could be swollen mucous membranes in your nose due to all the surges in hormone levels in your body and increases in blood production. In fact, some women stay stuffed up throughout pregnancy. (Which might be a good thing if you also suffer from a heightened sense of smell)
• Feeling OFF! You might not be able to explain what is ‘wrong’ with you. Yet plenty of pregnant mothers talk about just feeling different, even a few days after conception. Only to find out a few weeks later that they are in fact pregnant.

Pregnancy is a unique and amazing experience for everyone. Chances are, those subtle changes that you think are only in your head, or you confuse with ‘coming down with something,’ might just mean you are expecting!

Written By Stef, Mom of 4 @Mom-Spirational

This information is not intended to replace the advice of a trained medical doctor. Health & Parenting Ltd disclaims any liability for the decisions you make based on this information, which is provided to you on a general information basis only and not as a substitute for personalized medical advice. All contents copyright © Health & Parenting Ltd 2018. All rights reserved.

I was having coffee with a pregnant friend who had just been running errands. She said the teller at the bank told her, “You’re having a boy. You always lose your looks with a boy.” Rude, you say? And insulting, I might add. But such stories are part of the advice people feel free to give pregnant women – solicited or not. We’ve all heard stories like these, but we scoff and carry on. Still, a part of our mind wonders if there’s any truth to these old wives’ tales. Here a look at some of the most popular:

• If you’re carrying your baby low, it’s a boy. Gender prediction is the most prolific area of pregnancy advice. Carrying high or low, craving certain foods, a high fetal heart rate, and more – all of these tales can be a fun way to guess at whether the baby will be a boy or a girl, but none have a basis in fact. Gender is determined at conception; and, whether male or female, there are no tell-tale signs to clue you in apart from an ultrasound or genetic testing. By the way, carrying low may just mean your abdominal muscles aren’t as strong or toned as other women. Or it could just mean that you are genetically prone to a certain body shape.

• Don’t hang the wash or reach to a high shelf, or your baby will be entangled in the umbilical cord. In Jamaica, women are told not to step over a donkey’s tether or the baby will end up with the cord tightly around his neck. In Sicily, wearing a scarf can cause the same mishap. Or, if you’re Navajo, it could be the sitting with your legs crossed that does it. Take a deep breath, and stop worrying about this one. At birth, the umbilical cord is about twenty inches (50cm) long, and this gives plenty of length for baby to move, twist and turn throughout pregnancy and birth without becoming knotted or entangled. In fact, true knots occur in very few pregnancies.

• If you have heartburn, your baby will be born with lots of hair. Strangely, this one may have some fact to it. One study showed over 80% of babies born to moms who had moderate to severe heartburn had lots of hair! This is probably related to hormones that not only control growth, but that initiate changes in a mom’s body to keep pregnancy healthy.

• Never take a bath when you’re pregnant. The tale goes that if you submerge your belly in water, your baby will drown. While you don’t want to sit in water that’s too hot (and raise your body temperature too much), a warm bath can safely soothe the aches and pains of pregnancy. Also, you may be told not to take a bath in labor after your water breaks because it increases your risk of infection. Studies have shown this is not true, and that even a water birth is safe.

• If you crave a certain food, you’re baby must want it. Hungry for salsa? Your little one must be ordering it up. Well, not really. But there is a chance he might like spicy foods if you eat them often. Amniotic fluid takes on the flavors from mom’s diet, especially strong ones, like garlic or hot pepper. Another thought about cravings is that your body must need certain nutrients when you crave particular foods, though it hasn’t been proven.

• Sex will start labor. Sex is typically safe throughout pregnancy, and, even though it may cause some mild uterine contractions, it won’t start labor necessarily. If your body is ready for birth, however, sex may get things moving. The oxytocin release with orgasm, along with the prostaglandins in semen, may help to soften the cervix and induce regular contractions.

Before the advent of modern medicine, old wives’ tales served as a way of understanding and explaining the unknown. Today, we have ultrasound to track fetal development and all sorts of medical tests to help us understand the intricacies of pregnancy and birth. But these tales persist. Perhaps we still seek to rationalize and exert some control over bodily processes. Or perhaps the tales just serve as a way to connect with the past and with each other.

What are some of the more outrageous old wives’ tales you have heard?

Written by Michelle, writer, editor, Lamaze instructor, lactation consultant, and mother to 4 busy kids.

This information is not intended to replace the advice of a trained medical doctor. Health & Parenting Ltd disclaims any liability for the decisions you make based on this information, which is provided to you on a general information basis only and not as a substitute for personalized medical advice.  All contents copyright © Health & Parenting Ltd 2017. All rights reserved.