Do You Have Any Favorite OB Myths?

[BabyRN2Be]

I was wondering if anyone had a favorite OB myth that you've come across in work.

I'll start with a few of my favorites:

When I worked at a maternity home, the lead houseparent told the girls that if their baby was a girl, it proved that the young lady had participated in a lot of sexual activity at conception. If it was a boy, the young lady had intercourse only once or twice. I couldn't think of any biological basis for that one. Of course if the young lady had a baby girl, then she would really have been read the riot act about her sexual activity from the housemother.

This one I heard rather recently. A woman went in for an u/s to determine the baby's sex, and baby had it's legs crossed. The woman asked the u/s tech to count the fetal ribs because men have one less rib than women do - the "Adam's Rib Theory."

Anyone heard of other interesting OB myths that are brought into the doctor's office or hospital?

[djkmc1998]

I've heard some OB myths about redheads (on this very board, I think). I don't remember exactly what they were, but they pertained to redheads having more trouble with labor and delivery.

So what do you all think. Myth or truth?

Its a myth most definetly....my sil has red hair and has had two babies and I watched both deliveries.....no problems at all.

I wonder how that myth came about? Thats funny

[33-weeker]

All caucasian babies are born with blue eyes.

All babies ARE born with blue eyes. They change later. However, the babies who will have brown/dark eyes tend to have a darker steel-blue than the one's who will have lighter colored eyes.

[33-weeker]

The speed of the FHR can determine the sex of the baby.

I also love the "I lost my mucous plug so I am going to go into labor soon" uh, not necessarily(sp) and please, please, please I will just take your word for it I DO NOT NEED NOR WANT TO SEE YOUR MUCOUS PLUG gag yuck yuck gag, (have actually had pts bring them in usually wrapped in TP and want me to look at them)

Sorry - gotta disagree - been watching them for 15 years+...

Though it isn't 100%, in term babies, the higher FHT's (140s-150s) are frequently girls and the slower (120s-130s) are frequently boys.

[33-weeker]

Someone also mentioned something about morning sickness. The more morning sickness a mom has, the healthier the baby. I'm wondering if that's true or if it's something used to placate the mother during the 1st trimester.

I used to tell my clients these things, but after my cousin had a CDH baby, I'm not so quick to say something like that. BTW, this was when I was a very young doula and probably wasn't so bright to say something like that.

Anyone heard about this with morning sickness? Are there any studies saying that this is true?

Yes. To a point. Morning sickness is the effects of the hormones from the corpus luteum that maintains the pregnancy until the placenta takes over (end of first trimester?). If the woman is not having any symptoms, then it can be a sign that her hormones are not sufficient. Of course, sickness the whole pregnancy is not the norm either.

[33-weeker]

Both of my grandmothers thought that my mother was incapable of breastfeeding because her breasts were small. I can remember my mom talking to my grandmother on the phone, trying to convince her that she was not starving my brother to death!!!! :rotfl: My mom always told me that both grandmothers snuck me so much food as a infant that she, being young, finally gave up on breastfeeding my sister and I. It wasn't until she and my father moved several hours away from my grandparents, and she gained a little more self confidence and experience as a mother that she was able to stand up to the family and successfully breastfeed her last two children

Another hormone thing...

It is rare that a woman CAN'T produce enough milk for her baby. Many DON'T, but that's not because they CAN'T.

Anyhow... in 15+ years of nursery nursing, I have only met 2 or 3 women who's milk NEVER came in. They all reported NO breast changes during pregnancy, and either major problems getting pregnant or Hx of mother, g-mother with the same thing.

If a woman - regardless of the size of her breasts - has changes in the breasts in response to the hormones of pregnancy, SHE WILL PRODUCE MILK.

[33-weeker]

Not OB but peds anyway.....I know a nurse who thinks that NOT giving kids vaccinations builds a stonger immune system. I think that could(maybe) actually be true. But what about the harm from the side effects of all those diseases it takes to build that immunity?

It's not about getting the diseases, it's partly about not bypassing the usual method of infection/transmission (injecting rather than inhaling...etc.) and not asaulting the immune system when it is just developing.

Vaccinated kids are 4 times as likely to have asthma as their non-vaccinated peers.

My three are all non-vaccinated and all very healthy - only seeing the doc about 2 times a year for illness, and virtually NO ear infections. They did have chicken pox, but I wanted them to have a natural immunity for that. Plus, I wanted my 'booster' from being exposed to them (already had it as a child) so that I wouldn't get shingles.

Now that everyone is getting vaccinated against Ch-Pox, less kids are coming down with it. There is/will be a rise in shingles due to adults not getting exposed repeatedly to kids with the pox, which acts like a booster to their immunity.

You can't throw a stone in the water without causing ripples.

[cardsRN]

not to hijack the thread, and no offense to 33 weeker (your parenting decisions are your own and i would never dream of trying to second guess how you raise you kids!) but, i have heard arguments both for and against vaccinating your kids. con being mercury in the vaccine, natural immunity is better, immunizations hurt and make the baby feel crappy. pro being this: immunization is a heard immunity thing. what if everyone decides not to vaccinate? then diseases like polio would be back and kids would be crippled and dying from what we could have prevented. there is currently an outbreak of whooping cough in a local children's hospital and it has got me so freaked out!

back to reg sched thread: when i was a teen i heard if you jump up and down after sex, you won't get pregnant. and what about eating spicy food or driving down a bumpy road will induce labor.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

My Hispanic in-laws were constantly telling me not to eat spicy things while I was pregnant so the baby wouldn't be born with a rash. Milia? E-tox? I don't know. I craved & ate lots of spicy. He had E-tox for about a month.

[CEG]

not to hijack the thread, and no offense to 33 weeker (your parenting decisions are your own and i would never dream of trying to second guess how you raise you kids!) but, i have heard arguments both for and against vaccinating your kids. con being mercury in the vaccine, natural immunity is better, immunizations hurt and make the baby feel crappy. pro being this: immunization is a heard immunity thing. what if everyone decides not to vaccinate? then diseases like polio would be back and kids would be crippled and dying from what we could have prevented. there is currently an outbreak of whooping cough in a local children's hospital and it has got me so freaked out!

.

As a note to the side thread- most of the people ill in these disease outbreaks ARE vaccinated. It has nothing to do with the unvaccinated people. Also, if you do some historical research you will find that polio ended in the US after our mass innoculation program at the SAME TIME as it ended in Europe- where there was no mass vaccination.

Back to the regularly scheduled thread- my MIL insisted I was tangling the cord around my babies' necks. I asked her how I was supposed to wash my hair while pregnant and she said bend over:) I have this picture of her bending over in the shower for nine months washing her hair.

She also told me that if I didn't eat what I craved when I was pregnant the baby would be needy and crabby and if I satisfied the cravings the baby would be content. I liked this one though :)

She was dying to shave their heads and trim their eyelashes to make their hair thicker. They both inherited my thin hair so I am sure it kills her to look at, knowing she could have fixed it.

[33-weeker]

not to hijack the thread, and no offense to 33 weeker (your parenting decisions are your own and i would never dream of trying to second guess how you raise you kids!) but, i have heard arguments both for and against vaccinating your kids. con being mercury in the vaccine, natural immunity is better, immunizations hurt and make the baby feel crappy. pro being this: immunization is a heard immunity thing. what if everyone decides not to vaccinate? then diseases like polio would be back and kids would be crippled and dying from what we could have prevented. there is currently an outbreak of whooping cough in a local children's hospital and it has got me so freaked out!

back to reg sched thread: when i was a teen i heard if you jump up and down after sex, you won't get pregnant. and what about eating spicy food or driving down a bumpy road will induce labor.

my kids have documented high heavy metals in their bodies (geneitc condition - 'poor detoxifiers'). two of the three have a form of autism. i have a note from their doctor stating i don't have to vaccinate them, but i had planned not to anyway, because i am not convinced that the benefits outweigh the risks.

as far as the fear of the big, bad diseases. i would encourage you to read some of the better anti-vaccine liturature before becoming too afraid.

when a new, virile disease arises, it can be very harmful. but, the population will gain immunity over time on their own. vaccines take time to be developed. most of the bad diseases we now have vaccines for had decreased in incidence and severity by 80 to 90+% before the vaccine was ever introduced! i know this goes contrary to the myth that is perpetuated about how these wonderful vaccines iradicated these horrible diseases. it's a thrilling story, but not supported much by fact.

another issue is the subjectiveness of diagnosis. when polio was in it's hay-day, anything that showed paralytic symptoms for 24 horus was labled polio, without a definitive diagnosis. when the polio vaccine was introduced, suddenly the incidence of polio and menengitis reversed numbers. hmmmm...

"polio has not been eradicated by vaccination, it is lurking behind a redefinition and new diagnostic names like viral or aseptic meningitis.......according to one of the 1997 issues of the mmwr, there are some 30,000 to 50,000 cases of viral meningitis per year in the united states alone. that's where all those 30,000 - 50,000 cases of polio disappeared after the introduction of mass vaccination"---viera scheibner

sorry to continue the 'highjack'

just thought you might like to know the truth.

[CEG]

Sorry to continue the 'highjack'

Just thought you might like to know the truth.

Thanks for all that info, hijack or not. I do not vax my kids but am in nursing school and get a lot of funny looks for my views on vaccines.

[cardsRN]

i was aware that many people have personal or medical reasons for not vaccinating and would never touch that. i was not aware of the timing of decrease in disease relative to vaccine invention. that's certainly not something your pediatrician ever volunteers! and with fancy graphs! very educational. thanks 33 weeker.