#22 Does 9 months of "eating for two" give you a bigger baby or a bigger bum?

FACT OF THE DAY: Women in some cultures near starve themselves during pregnancy in hope of giving birth to a smaller baby that is safer to deliver

What’s one of the first thing people say to you once you’re pregnant? After the initial congratulations, often the next reaction along with your celebratory cup of tea is encouragement to eat more, saying “Go on, have another biscuit, now that you’re eating for two”.

Our culture’s obsession with feeding up pregnant women probably relates back to the days when food was scarce. But food is not so scarce these days, in fact for most of us it’s more than plentiful!

The current NHS advice specifically says “you don’t have to eat for two” during pregnancy. Making sure you eat sufficient vitamins and minerals while pregnant is now recognised as more important than extra food.

Exact figures vary, but it seems that for the first six months of pregnancy you don’t need any extra calories as your body becomes more efficient, and for the final three months just an extra 200-300 calories per day are needed (equivalent to a couple of slices of toast, or one Mars Bar).

That’s really very little excuse to be putting our hands in the cookie jar too often. It also explains why even in famine conditions women are able to produce babies.

#12 Breastfeeding on the job

FACT OF THE DAY: Us ‘modern day mothers’ are not the only ones having to juggle breastfeeding with going back to work

Today I’m going to add to a previous post #8  about some superhuman Nepali women living in the foothills of the Himalayas who carry enormously heavy bundles of firewood during their pregnancies.(http://pregnancyandchildbirtharoundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/11/8-no-such-thing-as-maternity-leave-in.html)

Equally impressive was the lengths the researcher (Catherine Panter-Brick) was prepared to go to, to see these women's breastfeeding habits were affected by their work and way of life. She spent a year in this village, keeping a minute by minute record of the activities of 58 village women, observing each of them for several days during 4 different seasons of the year. That’s dedication! (She is now Professor of Anthropology at Durham University, so I guess her dedication paid off).

I had naively thought that the difficulties of combining work and motherhood were new issues for women in the past 50 years. I somehow assumed that pre Women’s Lib, mothers stayed at home and looked after the children, and I probably thought that it was the same around the world. I hadn’t even really thought about the fact that women in other cultures have been ‘going back to work’ after having their babies for centuries (a necessity if their family are to have enough food to eat).

Next time you and your friends are discussing the difficulties of going back to work while breastfeeding, spare a thought for these Nepali women and feel reassured that your problem is as old as the hills.

So, among these Nepali women, how does a mother’s work affect her breastfeeding patterns?

#8 Superhuman pregnant women

FACT OF THE DAY: A pregnant Nepalese woman was observed carrying 36kg of firewood back to her village the day before she gave birth

Wow, just absorb that fact.

36kg.

Your average backpacker’s rucksack weighs around 25kg. A suitcase being checked in at the airport gets a 'heavy luggage' sticker to warn the baggage handlers if it weighs over 32kg. Yet here is a short, heavily pregnant woman, carrying 36kg on her back.

Makes me feel quite bad about the fuss I made about carrying the shopping in from the car, or getting an empty suitcase down from the loft when I was pregnant!