When you first find out that
you are pregnant it’s natural
to be a little nervous about
the whole process. If you are
like me, you head straight to
the internet to find out everything
you can about the dos
and the don’ts of living for
two.
While doing this research,
what you really find out is
that being pregnant is nothing
like your mother, your
friends and your favorite TV
stars have made it out to be.
Words like spider veins,
constipation and pregnancy
mask start to creep in to your
vocabulary.
Now, not everyone is affected
by these more taboo symptoms,
but many are.
It wasn’t until I started to
tell my friends and family
about my pregnancy, that
they opened up to me about
their own horror stories.
They told me things now
that they had never mentioned
to me before.
Their collective reason for
not sharing, simple really,
was because I was very sure I
was never having kids.
I have my own theory as to
why the people in my life
never clued me in to the true
depths of misery that can
come with pregnancy.they
really wanted me to have a
baby someday and they knew
that I would never do it if
they told me the real truth.
And guess what, they were
right.
Had I known then what I
know now, I think I would
have paid a back alley surgeon
to “fix” me rather than
risk getting pregnant.
As a matter of fact, I think
that health teachers should
incorporate these lessons in
to sex education for young
girls.
I had to sit through five or
six health classes throughout
my youth, I even had to
watch that giving birth video,
but never did anyone tell me
that I might poop on the
delivery table in front of my
husband and a crowd of
strangers.
Go ahead; tell a teenage girl
that, see if she ever wants to
risk pregnancy. I know I
wouldn’t have.
I used to think that stretch
marks were the worst thing
about a pregnancy, but that
was before I was educated.
Now I know better.
One nice little treat is chronic
leg cramps coupled with
frequent dizziness.
This little terrible twosome
can be real fun. It is just
peachy when you stand up to
do something and must
promptly sit back down
because of sharp pains in your
calves and blurred vision.
I, for one, was sure that I
was having some sort of
weird stroke. But, as it turns
out, by the time you are four
or five months along, your
heart has to work 40 to 50 percent
harder to provide blood
to your growing uterus. So, if
you stand up quickly, you are
likely to get dizzy.
The leg cramps, well, they
are usually a compound
problem. They can be caused
by dehydration, but also by
decreased blood flow to your
legs or from vitamin and mineral
deficiencies.
All this happens before you
get to the real hard part,
labor, which I won’t get in to
in this column. It is just too
scary to talk about yet.
However bad it is, or however
bad it gets, I have been
assured by the many mothers
that I have spoken to that,
once I hold my baby in my
arms, all will be forgotten.
I guess that is nature’s way
of insuring the survival of our
species.