The ‘what to eat during pregnancy’ debate was recently brought to the fore when a Sainsbury’s worker refused to serve a pregnant woman unpasteurised cheddar cheese. In a letter of complaint, Janet Lehain (31 years of age and mother of two) described the confrontation as “the most patronising encounter I have had the misfortune of experiencing in a long time”. She said that she only succeeded in persuading the member of staff at the Fairfield Park store to sell her the cheese by promising not to eat any of it herself. Since the incident, Sainsbury’s has admitted that “unpasteurised Cheddar does not pose a risk to health during pregnancy” – a recommendation made by the Food Standards Agency.
It seems that when a woman falls pregnant, society claims the right to educate and advise on a variety of subjects, whether opinions are informed or not. This is a topic that Guardian.co.uk blog writer Catherine Phipps has addressed, in response to Lehain’s experience. Phipps speaks of the unwarranted advice she received during pregnancy regarding what foods she should and shouldn’t be eating, including: peanuts, raspberries, honey, taramasalata, liquorice, lettuce, coffee, chamomile tea, macaroons, seafood, all oily fish, sausages, chillies, sweetbreads, kidneys, health drinks (eg Purdeys), live yoghurt, cream cheese, pork … and this is merely a summation of a long list. Phipps has, on many occasions, had to explain and justify her consumption of the aforementioned foods to prescriptive members of the public – both friends and other. On one occasion she was recounting to a friend a discussion she’d had with her partner about taramasalata and her friend’s immediate reaction was that she wouldn’t eat it “because it just doesn’t seem like the type of food one should eat during pregnancy.” Clearly logic is an overrated concept for some people. Another of Phipps’ experiences involved a friend who advised her not to eat raspberries because she’d once read that raspberry leaf tea was used to induce labour – so naturally eating the fruit is likely to cause the baby to be born prematurely: more logical than the first assumption but incorrect nonetheless. Phipps had a friend, who had a baby three years previously, attempt to save her from inflicting a deadly peanut allergy on her unborn child by bellowing “Catherine! Stop! You can’t eat that!” across the table in a Thai restaurant as she was about to dip a cracker into some satay sauce. For the record: the old ‘eating peanuts increases the risk of a peanut allergy’ theory has been thrown out by new research proving it was all a bunch of BS in the first place. The conflicting advice expectant mothers receive from a variety of well-meaning sources – friends, randoms, food labels and professionals – does nothing more than lead to an unhealthy sense of paranoia.
My favourite comment in response to Phipps’ editorial is by Toadjuggler, who says “My wife and I have six children, all hale and hearty and sans allergies of any kind. I do all the cooking and provisioning, so I can state with certitude that the only change in Mrs Juggler’s diet during any of her [pregnancies] was that the portions got bigger. Real [mayonnaise], very rare meat, unpasteurised [mould-ripened] cheese (so ripe that it was walking), runny boiled eggs, satay, odd fermented fish from Laos, nothing went off the menu. Yes, it’s possible that she was lucky that none of these foods caused any problems, but she was also lucky she didn’t get hit by a bus, which is about as likely.”
As a pregnant woman, I have consumed rare meat, a cheeky glass of red, peanuts, spicy food, tuna, kidney (by mistake – I don’t actually like the stuff), brie, runny eggs, real mayo, lots of jelly bellies, probably too much caffeine and I am sure plenty of things on ‘the no-no list’. And I haven’t taken a single pregnancy vitamin (at 37 weeks) after being advised that it was unnecessary if I eat a balanced diet – and the routine blood tests forming part of antenatal care have not suggested otherwise. Phipps says that she has found that “those who love food and who have a good general knowledge of it are much more relaxed. Attitudes also vary from generation to generation, and nationality to nationality.” She says that “Women of my mother’s generation become impatient when I regale them with yet another story about what I’ve been told not to eat – they tell me to use common sense, act on what my body is telling me it needs and otherwise, apart from the obvious (the foodstuffs which all information sources seem to agree on), eat everything in moderation.” Good advice I think. It’s about being sensible without being nonsensically ridiculous. It takes time to learn how to deal with patronising well-meaners and hypochondriacs. What I remind myself is that nobody could love my baby more than me and my husband, and I trust myself to make the right decisions with regards to what I eat and drink. I have been fortunate enough to avoid the barrage of advice regarding pregnancy habits but I am waiting for my luck to come back and bite me in the ass when it comes to baby-care and child-raising.
Sources:
Guardian.co.uk: So what can you eat when you’re pregnant?
News.bbc.co.uk: Store apology over cheese refusal
If you’ve been pregnant and have been given advice, did you find it welcome or not? Do you act upon it, or check for yourself? Do you carefully follow official guidelines or are you prepared to take risks? And for everyone else, what is your attitude towards pregnant women of your acquaintance?
