Monday, November 02, 2009

100s of schools of thought

Pregnancy invariably has brought in its wake one thing. Loads of advice. No sooner did I start telling people I was pregnant than I got loads of advice on what to eat, how to sleep, how to walk and so on and so forth. Especially on what to eat. So much so that within two days, although I was eating normally and was feeling just fine, and was doing quite good, I was feeling malnourished and guilty towards the foetus for not feeding it properly. I then asked my doc if there was anything special I need to eat and all he said was lots of vegetables and lots of fresh fruits. Sane advice for even a normal person, I think. He said be as normal as possible and so I stayed on through the pregnancy. I used to listen to advice but not fret over it if I didn't follow it. And it did do me a world of good.

Now post delivery, the advice and the notions are even more plentiful. So much so that it is overwhelming. Who should you listen to? what do you do when you hear completely contradicting pieces of advice. Do this, don't do that, if you do this the baby will grow well, if you don't do that the baby will be adversely affected and so on and so forth. It has been an internal battle to figure out and sort all the advice. Add to that some "traditions" which were extremely well meant for the times they were initiated in but probably don't hold much water now. And if you steer away from them you are outcasted. How do you deal with all the stress?

So my mantra has been simple. Follow the doc. Following his advice took me through a sane and safe pregnancy. He is the one who cut me up and stitched me back so he knows best about my stitches more than anyone else. So if he says my stitches have healed and I can "run, walk, cycle, hike, shop, squat, lift 20 kilos, anything" then so be it :) I will do all that I can so long as it is stress-free and doesn't break my back :) That way there is just one school of thought to follow and it keeps me sane :) For now it is back to the pregnancy routine of 30 minutes of brisk walking (I got back to my pregnancy lap time today!!). Hopefully soon I will be jogging too..

So what about you guys? Did you go through this roller-coaster of contradictory advices too? How did you deal with it?

5 comments:

Deepika said...

Omg I exactly went through the same dilemma and did what you are doing right now, just listen to one person, the doc.
While you can explain it to Mom why you dont want to follow that tradition, you can't do the same with MIL. Thinking abt it makes me want to stop at one kid, dont want to go through those ego clashes again.
Anyways just follow the doc and you will be fine.

Anonymous said...

Oh Follow the doc or do your research :) thats the best..

Samatha said...

I have a close friend who had a baby via C-sec(sounds like you had one yourself) and she started going up and down the stairs the second day itself much to the dismay of her own mother who was visiting to help with the baby. When she asked her doctor that, he told her to do exactly the same, get up and get moving. The doctor actually advised her to do as much walking around as she can as long as she is not feeling pain/straining herself as he thought that was the best way to "heal".

DivSu said...

@Deepika - Thankfully no issues at all with in-laws :)

@Samatha - That is exactly what my doc said and it did work for me :)

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the new addition - like your writing. Enjoy time with the baby and don't second guess yourself too much, there's always another baby when your improved parenting skills will shine through!

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