If there is anything people get regularly and relentless judged for it’s pregnancy. But are you eating sushi? Drinking coffee? DYING YOUR HAIR? There are just far too many rules and complicated algorithms mums-to-be are supposed to follow. Reddit posted a thread recently asking its readers to discuss the major pregnancy “no-no’s” they’ve encountered in their home country.
We’re seeing a common theme of beverage and foods to abstain from, but there are definitely some more interesting ones.
1. “In old school Mexico you shouldn’t be exposed to moonlight while pregnant, because the moon is jealous of your motherhood, and will curse your child with a cleft lip. To thwart this, you must wear a polished silver key around your neck to deflect the moonlight.”
2. “In Hawaiian culture, pregnant women won’t wear loops around their neck, like leis or necklaces due to the belief that the loop can cause the child to get tangled with the umbilical chord.”
3. “In China you are not supposed to eat or drink cold things while pregnant or you will make the baby cold.”
4. “An Argentinian friend told me that when you’re pregnant you should always eat everything you crave. If you’re craving cake, for example, and don’t eat it, the baby will come out with a ‘cake face’.”
5. "In Venezuela we say that if you don't eat what you crave, the baby would come out with the mouth open."
6. "My family is Peruvian and in Peru, seafood is a food staple. It's often served raw or undercooked. However, my cousin was recently pregnant and she would only eat cooked fish."
7. "My colleague pretty much lived on McDonald's Cheeseburgers during her pregnancy. She was so scared to eat anything that might hurt her child. And she said, at Macca's it's at least all cooked through and there are strict controls as to food hygiene. It's still amazing to me that she didn't end up malnourished."
8. "My family is Vietnamese/Chinese. No lamb because it causes baby to have seizures. No tiny bananas - not sure why. No raw seafood, no shellfish, no alcohol. After you have the baby you have to stay in bed for a month. No beef, seafood, fruit, raw veggies, basically no to everything. You eat A LOT of ginger chicken and rice, if you have money you get birds nest soup. Looking forward to gnawing my way out of my room because your mother or MIL will live with you for a month to make sure you NEVER LEAVE."
9. "I'm in Ireland. I always laughed when older women said something along the lines of 'ah, ya can't have a drink (alcohol) till after the babies born now' and like 5 minutes later follow it up with 'a glass of wine/ Guinness is good for the baby'."
10. "I'm Arab and there are SO many but all are so ridiculous. I would get so frustrated with the serious warnings while I was pregnant. A lot of it was what I should or should not do. Most ridiculous one was being told not to look at rabbits or else my baby will grow up to have buck teeth...don't itch when you crave something or the baby will get a birthmark (although my baby does have a lamb shaped one..) and if you crave sweets it's a girl & if you crave sour it's a boy."
11. "My coworker is Indian (middle eastern) and she wasn't allowed to leave the house for 40 days after the pregnancy, other that doctors check ups, due to superstition from her culture. It's supposed to protect them from infection and evil."
12. "My Indian family believes that during solar and lunar eclipses pregnant women are not to touch any metal. Nothing at all, utensils, taps, handles, nothing. So when there is an eclipse "warning", all possible metal objects need to be covered up, and if possible the lady should refrain from doing anything. In addition, during the eclipse, pregnant women should not do anything that involves sharp objects. It is believed that what ever the lady is doing at the time it will harm the child in that way. For example: if cutting the child will have cuts on the body, if sewing the child's skin will be stuck together."
13. "My wife is pregnant here in Canada, but all the Filipino women at her work get upset when she puts her hands up. They say that the baby will get the umbilical cord wrapped around their neck if you put your hands above your head."
14. "My father's family is Tejano. My mother was 8 months pregnant with me when my dad's uncle died and my grandmother and her sisters told my mom not to go near the casket at the funeral. Apparently, a life arriving and a life departing are not supposed to be near each other."
Have you got any pregnancy no-no's?
If you want to read more about what parenting is like around the world, a good place to start is A Cup Of Jo.