What do you think are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about pregnancy?

Question

Dr. Karlie Causey, DC, MS, CSCS · Answer

What do you think are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about pregnancy? So although it's definitely changing, I think there is still a preconceived notion that pregnant women are fragile, that they're weaker than normal, that they can't do what they normally do. And luckily we're proving over and over that that's just not completely true. There's tons of studies now showing that women actually working out and continuing to stay active and really highly active is good for them and also good for the baby. I think there's also still some misconceptions about weight gain. In the United States we actually gain much more weight than they do in other countries, especially like in European countries. So we really only need to be eating 300 to 500 extra calories as we're building a baby. So I think that's a misconception that we can just sort of go off the rails and eat whatever we want. And while it's totally okay to indulge in some things, and especially if you're having cravings, not to get too crazy about that, but I think it's also totally acceptable now to continue with a very healthy diet and being concerned about that and wanting to put really healthy things into your body. The last thing that comes to mind right away is that if you're healthy, if you're active, if you're doing all the right stuff, the idea that you're not going to have any issues, that you're going to have an uneventful pregnancy. And it's really just not the case. So we should always be prepared, prepare ourselves for whatever could happen on that day when we go into labor, but also leading up to that day. Some people develop diabetes, high blood pressure, these sorts of things that they're not necessarily thinking would be a normal thing for them because they live such a healthy lifestyle, but that all gets kind of thrown out the window during pregnancy. So just the idea that if you do all the right things, you'll have an uneventful pregnancy, that's definitely not the case. We hope it is, but not always true.

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"What do you think are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about pregnancy?"