From “I Love Lucy” re-runs to Reddit forums, bad advice on pregnancy abounds. Some of your most cherished beliefs about pregnancy, in fact, might not be factual at all. Here are a few pregnancy myths, debunked:
You Must Eat for Two
Depending on what trimester you’re in, it’s more like eating for 1.009. Your baby starts out as a speck, don’t forget, and only grows to about 5.5 to 10 pounds, on average. You only need to eat about 300 extra calories per day. Gaining too much weight actually puts you at risk for dangerous complications, such as pre-eclampsia.
One platitude that does hold true — doubly — is, “You are what you eat.” And so is your baby. While you might not be eating enough for two whole people, you need to eat the highest quality, most nutrient-dense foods possible so that your growing baby can create strong and healthy cells.
You Should Indulge Your Food Cravings
While the cliché of pregnant women craving “pickles and ice cream” has been around since at least 1903, just because you crave something doesn’t mean you should eat it. In fact, indulging a craving for ice cream could lead to gestational diabetes.
Your craving might be signaling your body that it lacks an important nutrient. So, find a healthier, more nutritious version of your craving.
If you develop pica — an urge to eat non-food items, such as dirt, clay, or crayons — contact your OB/GYN specialist immediately. Pica can be a sign of a deficiency in iron, zinc, or another important nutrient. Eating non-food items could expose your developing baby to lead poisoning and should never be indulged.
You Can’t Have Intercourse
Unless you have a high-risk pregnancy and your physician has specifically told you to avoid getting intimate, it’s OK to get frisky with your partner. Your baby is protected by amniotic fluid, the amniotic sac, your abdominal muscles, and a mucus plug that blocks your cervix, preventing sperm from entering the uterus.
You Shouldn’t Exercise
Exercise is actually an important part of keeping your baby (and yourself) healthy. Exercise releases endorphins that make you both feel happy and relaxed.
Exercise also strengthens your heart, muscles, and veins. Regular walking or jogging gently even prevents dreaded varicose veins. Your doctor can help you choose the best exercise regimen for each trimester.
Banking Cord Blood Is Enough
You’ve heard that banking your baby’s cord blood is a new kind of health-insurance policy that lets your child — and other family members — draw from the banked stem cells in a health crisis. While that’s true, cord blood only contains hematopoietic progenitor stem cells, which have limited applications. To give you and your family access to a full array of stem cells — mesenchymal and epithelial stem cells— you need to bank your baby’s umbilical cord tissue, too.
Choose GlobalCord
Make an informed choice. Select a cord banking service that is licensed to offer complete coverage for all stem cell therapies derived from your stored cord.
Umbilical cord lining tissue banked by non-licensed cord blood banks may not provide the stem cell yield or quality that CellResearch Corporation’s proprietary and patented protocols can provide — this may affect its suitability for future therapeutic use. In addition, these blood banks and medical institutions that offer CellResearch Corporation's patented protocols — which include ALL cord lining stem cell therapies — are at risk of patent infringement.
GlobalCord is operated by CellResearch Corporation and its partners. Cords banked through GlobalCord are covered by CellResearch Corporation’s patent licensure which extends to 41 territories around the world, including the U.S.A