by BG Torres

Created on: July 07, 2008

Myths abound when it comes to pregnancy, ranging from not lifting your arms to acurately foretelling your baby's sex from a Chinese Lunar Chart. But when it comes down to it, many myths are truths and some truths are myths, it just depends on the person.

I have had the privelage of finding myself pregnant and giving birth two times and this has given me insight to a few common myths.

1) Morning Sickness: it does not strike everyone as believed. I found myself feeling extremely well without a single hint of the dreaded ailment. A popular addendum to the myth is that the worse the sickness the healthier the pregnancy. Without a single dry heave, I delivered a healthy baby boy. Pregnancy #2 however yielded different results. I had a sensitive gag reflex, but it was only stimulated about once a month and that pregnancy resulted in a rather fiesty healthy baby girl.

2) Pregnant Women Glow: This may hold true for some but not me, unless you call the glint of perspiration on my brow a glow. The additional weight and added baby caused my internal thermostat to increase by approximately 50 degrees, which in turn resulted in my sweating just from putting on shoes.

3) Pregnant Women Shouldn't take Baths: This myth originated from possible contamination into the uterus, but the baby is properly protected. If this one had rang true I would have died. I spent nearly every day of my final trimester soaking my tired exhausted body in a nice warm tub.

4) The Shape of the Belly can Determine the Sex: If this is the case then I delivered two healthy watermelons. I carried both of my babies the same, like watermelons.

5) 9 Months on 9 Months off: This myth pertains to weight gain. Personally this depends on the person. I gained 28 pounds with my son and left the hospital with all of it and conceived my daugther still holding onto 23 pounds of it. Then after I delivered her, I came home and slipped into clothes I hadn't worn in two years showing an overall weight loss of nearly 30 pounds in two days. She was the best diet ever!

There are many many more myths about pregnancy and it is fun and entertaining to look them up and see the ones that do pertain to you. My daughter did steal my beauty as they say girls do with a rampant case of acne and my son caused me to gain weight all over. The added estrogen from my daughter made me hate men, which I quickly got over.

No matter the myth, the end result is typically the same, we get to hold beautiful babies that made our lives miserable while they were inside of us, but it was worth every second.

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