Saturday, April 19, 2014

"I read somewhere"

The most overused phrase used in the mothering language has to be “I read somewhere”. I remember one of the freakiest things about pregnancy was when my sister would ring me up to let me know about what she had read about pregnancy, birth or newborns somewhere that week. Gullibility is a definite weakness of mine, having landed me in trouble multiple times during my life. In fact it almost killed me when I was younger and my sister told me that spiders would nest in my mouth whilst I was sleeping, so I taped my nose and my mouth up with heavy duty duct tape and proceeded to fall asleep. Turns out you need both of these to breath. So when she rung me with a story of “I read somewhere that women who are pregnant pee their pants on a regular basis…. well I went straight out and bought some decent panty liners because there was no way I was having that happen in public! Little did I know that at 13 weeks I practically had nothing to worry about at that point.

Once I got past the supposed foot swelling, nightmare ridden, sweaty pregnant phase, I was so stressed about childbirth that it was probably a godsend that my little tub of joy came 5 weeks early. I had no time to read any text books, watch any dvds or listen to the several reasons why I should pass on pain relief! In just 48 hours, the only influence I had was my best friend, 10 minutes with my midwife and a 2 minute checkup hourly from the hospital nurse. This was probably the best way to have done it, no “I read somewhere that if you drink this [Insert old wives tale] labour comes on faster”, or “I read somewhere that if you push too hard you can damage your tailbone”

Pregnancy and Childbirth don’t even come close to the “I read somewhere” quotes about the Newborn stage.

Here are my favourites:

“I read somewhere that cloth nappies are just as simple as disposable nappies”
“I read somewhere that you just have to sleep when baby sleeps”
“I read somewhere that co-sleeping is a terrible idea”
“I read somewhere that Breast is best”
“I read somewhere that you can never tell if baby is getting enough breast milk so you should top them up with formula”
“I read somewhere that you should start a perfect minute-by-minute routine from the early stages”

Most of these contradictory phrases weren’t even backed up with any sources whatsoever or any reliable sources. But I just loved how if they read it somewhere or heard it from someone who read it from somewhere it was instantly a fact that I had to take into account as a mother from their expert non-mother opinion. Fair to say I become a lot less gullible when I became a mother.

There are two places you need to receive advice from as a mother and that is your GUT and INSTINCT! Well that’s what I read somewhere!

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