Certainly your life has changed – and changed forever. But that doesn’t mean you have to forget about fitness even though there are many challenges to getting fit after giving birth including:

• Finding the time to exercise
• Coping with less sleep
• General fatigue
• Generating the motivation to begin to exercise – and keeping it going
• Keeping a home/family/baby time/work/balance

A return to full fitness is possible

To prove that getting back into your pre-pregnancy dress size is achievable, there are many role models in athletics who have shown that not only is it possible to return to fitness post pregnancy, they have gone on to give world-class performances at the very pinnacle of their sports. Ingrid Kristensen, Sonia O’Sullivan and Paula Radcliffe have produced winning performances after giving birth and credited their improved stamina to the physiological benefits that occur as a result of being pregnant.

Getting started

If you’ve recently given birth, obviously you’re going to be very busy with the extra demands on your time. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (ACOG) recommends no physical stress for two weeks after delivery and not to resume to full daily activities for a further four weeks. Additionally, if you have had a Caesarean delivery, you should avoid exercise for 8-10 weeks to allow for full healing. Your midwife will also be able to advise you on when you can begin working out. However, it is likely that you will know yourself when you feel ready to commence exercise, not only physically but also when your new baby is settled into a manageable routine.

After giving birth, your joints will be loose because of the hormone relaxin which has allowed everything to stretch to accommodate your baby. Avoid excessive flexibility training for 16-20 weeks, high impact activities and lifting heavy weights. Build your fitness gradually for both your body’s safety and for sensible physiological progression.

Targets and benefits

Your primary targets for getting fit are likely to be:

• Returning to your pre-pregnancy weight
• Rebuilding your abdominal strength
• Feeling good

Getting fitter provides numerous health benefits but specifically post pregnancy your fitness programme will give you:

• Improved posture
• Increased strength
• Increased stamina
• Elevated metabolic rate
• Weight-loss
• More energy
• Increased self-confidence

Fitting it all in

There’s no way around it, you’re busy and sometimes, finding any free time in the day is a challenge, let alone several times a week. That is where planning and organisation come in. The most important step that you take on your road back to fitness is telling every one of your plans. By involving them and getting them to understand how important it is to you, when you need support for some quality ‘you time’, they won’t be surprised. If you explain to them why you are getting fit, the benefits and how exercise is a key part of your life, they can buy in to your plans and help, support and enjoy your path to improved health and fitness.

Exercise time strategies

Certainly, you have to be organised to fit in a training session around sleep times, nappy changing and feeds but with some thought and planning, there are many different opportunities for some quality training time, including:

• Community playgroups
  A chance for a couple of hours away whilst your toddler plays.
• Babysitting
  Make use of friends or get involved in a babysitting circle with local parents.
• Nursery care
  As well as letting you have some quality time, your baby or toddler will benefit from some social interaction with other children.
• Parents
  A cornerstone of your support network and providing you don’t overdo it, usually very happy to be the doting grandparents.
• Older siblings
  Assuming they’re old and responsible enough, another opportunity for some exercise time.
• Partner
  Sharing the parenting duties is important for you both, so let your partner spend some bonding time with your baby whilst you work out.
• Train with your baby
  A brisk walk in the fresh air is a great way to fit in some exercise with junior and if you feel more energetic, there are some excellent Baby jogger pushchairs available, specifically designed for your activity and your baby’s comfort.
• Gym crèches
  Many of the big Health Club chains offer crèche facilities, so you can train without any concerns that your baby is very far away.

Having a baby is a life changing experience that is not to be missed, but your new baby is part of your life just like looking after your own health and fitness. By starting out on a fitness programme, you will have more energy and vitality and will enjoy motherhood even more!

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Content courtesy: Realbuzz.com

An emergency contraceptive, popularly known as the morning-after pill, is a drug taken by women, right after they have had unprotected sex. The pill is packed with a high dose of synthetic hormones that interferes with the fertilisation process.

Here are 10 facts you should know about the morning-after pill:

1. An emergency contraceptive contains progestin levonorgestrel, which are synthetic hormones, like ones used in contraceptive pills.
2. The pill is supposed to be taken within 72 hours of having unprotected sex. Doctors say the earlier, the better.
3. It acts either by preventing or delaying ovulation, preventing fertilisation or by preventing the implantation of the fertilised egg by altering the structure of the uterine wall.
4. The pill does not cause an abortion, so taking it after you are pregnant will not terminate a pregnancy.
5. It does not protect a woman from STDs like HIV/AIDS, gonorrhoea, Herpes, etc.
6. It is not a substitute for conventional contraceptive pills. This is because the pill contains a very high amount of synthetic hormones, which can cause a number of complications if used continuously. In contrast, contraceptive pills have a low dose of hormones that help to alter the ovulation cycle and prevent pregnancy.  
7. After taking the pill, a person might experience some common side effects like nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, changes in your menstrual cycle, dizziness and breast tenderness.
8. According to gynaecologists, the pill should only be the last resort when it comes to contraception because it wreaks havoc with a woman’s hormones. Young girls whose hormone levels have not yet stabilised tend to be at a greater risk of developing conditions such as PCOD, endometriosis and have a greater risk of developing ectopic pregnancies.
9. If you do take the morning after pill, it is important for you to get a regular check-up from your gynaecologist to eliminate the possibility of any further complications.
10. Lastly, the pill is only effective if taken after having unprotected sex. It will not work if you have sex after you have had the pill.

Health.India.com view:

Although the FDA has allowed the sale of this pill to girls as young as 15 years, it may spell disaster for their bodies. The FDA has justified this move by saying that the girls are old enough to understand the implications of using the pill as a method of regular contraception and that it will not protect them from STDs. At an age when their hormones are all over the place, will they not find the emergency contraceptive pill an easy and convenient way to have the cake and eat it too?

What do you think? 

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Most pregnant women experience this long, sickening phase of nausea, vomiting and dizziness mostly in the first trimester of pregnancy. Some could continue to experience them throughout their pregnancy. They may or may not be triggered by certain smells. And the biggest misconception about morning sickness is that women experience it only in the morning. The fact is that it can affect women anytime of the day.

It has all got to do with the changes in your body

A rapidly rising blood level of a hormone called the human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) released by the placenta stimulates the maternal ovaries to secrete oestrogen, which is believed to cause the nausea. The increased sensitivity to odours may also stimulate and trigger nausea. Also, it is thought that an increase in progesterone hormone may relax the muscles of the stomach and intestines thereby causing excess stomach acids and acid reflux disease resulting in nausea and vomiting.

Cheer up! It could be good for your baby

Your body has defence against the food toxins you consume. But the baby inside you doesn’t.  Hence, it is believed that morning sickness is an evolved feature to protect your baby against toxins ingested by you.

It may also protect you in certain ways. Your immune system is subdued during pregnancy to reduce the chances of your body rejecting the growing foetus. This could put you at risk from parasites and harmful bacteria present in animal products. Nausea and vomiting may help you expel them from your body.

It can get nasty for a few

A few pregnant women may have severe, persistent nausea and vomiting during pregnancy which can cause dehydration, weight loss, and decreased potassium levels. Such a condition is called hyperemesis gravidarum.

Some relief measures

Morning sickness may stop around the 12th week of pregnancy for most women and most of them usually don’t need treatment. Fortunately the body has reserves, so if nutrition is not optimum the baby is not compromised.  Vitamin B6 may help decrease nausea in early pregnancy. But consult your doctor before taking any medicines.

Here are a few tips to deal with morning sickness:

• Avoid foods and smells that trigger your nausea.
• Relax. Get plenty of rest.
• Do not worry about eating a balanced diet. Have smaller meals and dry toast or biscuits with every mini meal.
• Drink plenty of fluids. Sipping iced water could offer some relief from nausea and vomiting.
• Ginger is thought to be effective against morning sickness. You can either have small slivers of ginger or sip a tea made from grated root ginger.
• Peppermint, an energy booster, is another remedy. You can either smell it or use it in your tea.

If your nausea and vomiting is very severe (hyperemesis gravidarum) you may need to be admitted in the hospital to receive fluid and nutrition through an intravenous line. Your doctor may also prescribe certain medicines.

Breastfeeding, is essential for both the mother and the child. It helps create a bond between the mother and the baby and gives your child the immunity and nutritional boost it requires right after birth. It is recommended by the WHO (World Health Organization), La Leche League and the Indian Academy of Paediatricians, that a baby should be breastfed for at least the first two years of their life.

I think I do not have sufficient milk for my newborn. What do I do?

Most people do not understand the difference between a ‘perceived milk supply’ and a ‘true milk supply’. There are important indicators of a child’s level of nutrition that a mother should know, after she delivers. Some of them are:

1. The baby should gain approximately 150 to 200 grams of weight per week, after 2 weeks of birth.

2. The baby should ideally pass stools about 3-4 times a day after day 5 of birth. 

3. The baby should be changed 7-8 times if cloth diapers are used and 5-6 times if heavy disposable diapers are used after 5 days of birth. The diaper should ideally weigh about 30-60 ml. A good way to measure that is to take about 3 tablespoons of water and actually weigh it, you will get to know how much a healthy baby’s diaper should weigh.

If the above points do not hold true when it comes to your baby, it means the baby isn’t getting enough milk. This could be due to insufficient lactation or ‘improper latch’ between the baby and your breast. Increase the frequency or the number of times you breastfeed your baby. The more frequently you breastfeed, the more you are likely to lactate. Ensure effective ‘latch’ and ‘positioning of the baby’. If the latch isn’t good enough, you may need to express your milk and store it for feeding. 

Why is my baby not able to suckle?

In several cases, the mother may be doing all the right things but the baby refuses to suckle or take to the breast. Under such circumstances we need to look at the birth history of the baby. Research has found that the birth experience of the mother, plays an important role in ensuring a baby’s health. Things like epidurals, caesarean section deliveries or forceps deliveries, can cause a baby mental trauma leading to him/her finding it difficult to breastfeed effectively. As a Lactation consultant, the first thing I would do is to identify the root of the problem, and put the mother and the baby in a healing environment. Research suggests that massaging the baby, a tradition in Indian culture, helps to erase those birth traumas and helps the child recuperate. Another useful technique is Craniosacral therapy (is a gentle,hands on approach, where the practitioner gently massages the baby’s head and neck, to release tension, pain and stresses deep within the body)  that has proven to be very helpful in such cases. All these things put together can help a baby recover and breastfeed again.

I am a working woman, and cannot feed my baby many times a day. Can I substitute formula milk for breast milk?

I would not suggest it. Formula milk can be compared to prescribed medicine that should be used only in the case of an emergency. If your baby is not able to breastfeed for some reason, only then should you use formula milk as an alternative. It should not be used as an easy substitute for breast milk. There is no match between a mother’s milk and formula milk . Formula milk has only those components that are essential to the baby’s survival. Unlike breast milk, it will not ensure any brain development or improvement of the child’s immunity.

Pregnancy Tests – how they work

About six to twelve days after fertilization, implantation of fertilised egg to the uterine wall occurs. Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) produced by the cells of the fertilised egg (blastocyst) builds up rapidly in your body. It doubles every 2 to 3 days in the first few weeks of pregnancy reaching a peak level by 8-12 weeks. Pregnancy tests detect this hormone in urine and blood. Pregnancy may also be detected with ultrasonography.

Types of Pregnancy Tests

You can know if you are pregnant with three types of tests:

1. Urine test

A urine test can be done at the doctor’s clinic or at home. Home urine test for pregnancy is convenient and about 97% accurate. Though some very sensitive pregnancy test kits may detect pregnancy on the first day of your missed period, to get the most accurate result it is advisable to take the test at least a week after a missed period and to do the test first thing in the morning during which your urine is very concentrated. It is very important to follow instructions on the test kit. The kit may have test strip or dipstick. The test strip needs to be held in the urine stream and the dipstick needs to be dipped into a sample of urine. If you are pregnant, an area on the end of the test strip or dipstick changes colour.

Some kits may have a test device with wells. You will need to collect urine in a cup and place few drops of urine with a dropper into the well mentioned in the instructions. Colour changes in the other wells indicate that you are pregnant. You may get a negative result if you are not pregnant, if you took the test before time or you did not take the test correctly. Confirm your home test result with your doctor.

Some of the pregnancy test kits available in India are Velocit from Dr Reddy’s, Prega News from  Mankind, Instant Pregnancy Test from Homecheck, I -Can (Pregnancy kit) from Piramal Healthcare Ltd., etc. which may cost between Rs 40 to Rs 100.

Pregnant but test is negative?

Sometimes, there may be cases when you actually might be pregnant but the test is negative. This may happen when the testing is done too early. The hormone hCG cannot be detected until after implantation which can occur anywhere from 6 to 12 days after ovulation. Less sensitive urine tests may take another three or four days after implantation to detect hCG. The date of ovulation is very unpredictable and may occur on a different day every cycle and even more so if you have irregular cycles. To get a more accurate idea of when to test, use different ways like charting basal body temperature, ovulation predictor kits (OPKs), etc. to determine the ovulation period.

Test is positive when you are not pregnant

You may get a false positive test result if you take the test wrong, read the test after the suggested 3–5 minute reaction time, use test kits past their expiration date or if you have been given an hCG injection during infertility treatment. A false positive pregnancy test result may also be seen in some cancers and other medical conditions that may produce elevated hCG levels.

2. Blood test

Though blood tests are more accurate and can detect pregnancy earlier than urine tests they are used less often. Done at your doctor’s clinic or labs, the blood tests can detect pregnancy six to seven days after ovulation. But it takes longer to get the results. There are two types of blood pregnancy tests:

• Qualitative hCG test: It simply detects the presence or absence of hCG as early as 10 days after a missed period to confirm whether you are pregnant or not. It may not detect pregnancy until three or four days after implantation.
• Quantitative hCG test: It measures the amount or concentration of hCG, even very low levels, in your blood. Problems like ectopic pregnancy may be detected with this test.
• Detecting early pregnancy factor (EPF): Within 48 hours of fertilization, a protein called early pregnancy factor (EPF) is produced. Detecting this protein in the blood is the earliest but expensive and time-consuming way to determine pregnancy.

3. Ultrasonography

Ultrasonography may be used to visualize the foetus in your womb at around four and a half weeks after your last menstrual period (LMP). It can tell you how many weeks you are into pregnancy and how healthy your baby is. You may be able to see your baby’s heartbeat by seven weeks after LMP.

Madhumita, 29, was elated with the fact that she was pregnant, but the fear of not being a ‘good enough’ mother was eating away at her. Her well-meaning friends and relatives were bombarding her with advice. Atleast three of her friends were pregnant and all they could talk about was their pregnancy. Her husband got her all the pregnancy books he could lay his hands on. With this glut of information, poor Madhumita was badly confused and stressed.

While most mothers-to-be worry about how they will be able to take care of their infants, our expert Dr Zinal Unadkat, says that worrying is normal. But listening to that ‘mother’s instinct’ is essential. In a casual tête-à-tête with the leading paediatrician, we asked her some of the most common questions parents have.

Pavitra: What are the most common queries parents ask you about their babies?

Dr Zinal: Some of the most common queries I get are that, ‘is my baby normal?’  I had one parent who asked me, ‘my friends baby had a heart abnormality, I am afraid that my child will also have a heart abnormality, should I get a 2D echo done?’ It is important to remember that every baby is not going to be unhealthy. It is important to use your instincts when it comes to your baby. Go regularly to the doctor, and ask him or her all the questions you might have. Remember that there are no ‘stupid questions’. To you they may sound silly, but every question can be important to your child’s health.

Pavitra: Doctor, what are the most common myths you come across in your practice?

Dr Zinal: The most common myth that I have come across is when parents ask me,  ‘Doctor, I want to feed honey to my baby as soon as it is born, can I?’  There are some communities in India that believe that whichever person feeds the child honey , the baby grows up to be like that person. What I try to tell all my patients is that please don’t follow all these myths blindly. It is not possible for a child to become like a person by just feeding it honey; it takes years of nurturing for a child to become like someone. Moreover by introducing honey you are introducing infections and bacteria into the baby. Honey has very toxic bacteria called Clostridium botulinum that can be fatal to babies.

Another common myth that most parents have is about the first milk or ‘colostrum’. They say it is the heaviest (unhealthy) milk and should be thrown away. This is absolutely wrong. In fact that colostrum is the boost your baby needs to improve his/her immunity, build a stronger body and research has shown that it even makes your baby smarter.

Pavitra: What are the dos and don’ts right after childbirth?

Dr Zinal: The most important thing that you should remember is that the baby should be allowed to adapt from the intrauterine environment to the outside environment. There are 5 things that are very important.

1.  Colour: This means that the baby should look pink after birth. This shows that the baby’s circulation is good. The best way to ensure that is to provide the baby warmth.

2.  Doctor’s examination: The doctor should check for the breathing, heart rate, etc. and see that the baby is doing fine.

3.  Breast feed: Once the baby is stable, he/she should be put immediately to breast (given a breast feed) because for the first one hour they are most active and will learn to suckle immediately.

4. Maternal warmth: It is important to place the baby on or near the mother. When the baby is kept on the mother, it automatically warms the baby through the mother’s body heat.

5. Minimal handling: There should be minimal handling of the baby. This means that the child should be carried, changed or fed by the least number of people, to avoid infections.

Pavitra: What tips would you give to new parents?

Dr Zinal: I think the most important thing for new parents is that the mother should be in a positive frame of mind. It is up to the mother to decide the health of the baby. If she is always going to be a critical and doubtful, she will have an unhealthy baby. The bottom line is that a mother has to be healthy both in the body and mind to have a healthy baby. What new parents need, is a mix of positivity, and the right balance of love and medical knowledge, she will be able to go through motherhood very well.

Pavitra: What is the father’s role in the life of a newborn?

Dr Zinal: I feel that a father’s role is very important, because pregnancy is a very stressful time. The mother goes through a lot of negativity, fears and a large number of inputs coming from various well wishers. In this situation, the father should be her support since that’s what the mother needs. It is important to know that she is going through a lot of changes including those in her life style, job. Her time gets more devoted to the child rather than to the husband or to the family. The husband has to be supportive of the fact that she needs to devote that time to the baby. I feel that if the mother devotes the first six months solely to the child’s care, it forms a strong base for the baby’s future health. The kind of psychological help that a father can provide the mother, nobody else can. He should also spend time talking to the baby and spend time playing with it. This way the baby will feel like the part of a complete family.

Pavitra: What is the ideal weight of a newborn?

Dr Zinal: There are different standards in different countries, but in India we assume that a healthy baby should weigh anything above 2.5 to 4 kilograms. Anything above that may not be very healthy. A baby heavier than 4 kilograms indicates that the mother has had some problems during her pregnancy. That being said, I always believe that weight is not everything, it is the overall health of the child. I have seen babies that are just 1.8 kilograms and are perfectly healthy. The baby should feed well, should gain weight well and respond well to you.

Pavitra: How can a parent gauge if something is wrong with their newborn?

Dr Zinal: Mostly babies cry excessively when they have to indicate that something is wrong. This is because they have only one way to express their feelings. There are basically two tell-tale signs that there is something wrong -if the baby is crying too much and if the baby is too quiet. When the baby does not cry at all, is not feeding well, is listless and lethargic, that is when you have to worry.

To know exactly what I mean, let me contrast it with the definition of a healthy baby. A normal thriving baby sleeps enough, drinks enough milk, passes enough urine and stools and reacts well to stimuli. Even though newborn babies cannot see very well, they can feel and understand. So when you talk to them they will immediately become quiet, or if you pick them up, they feel your warmth and become quiet. So if you try all of this, and the baby does not get quiet and continues to cry, then you need to take the child immediately to the doctor.

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Question: My wife is about 4 months pregnant. Which foods are good for her & our baby?

Answer: A good intake of all vitamins and minerals is essential during pregnancy. Calcium helps baby’s teeth and bone formation. Vitamin D helps the body to absorb calcium and folic acid reduces the risk of congenital neural tube defect in baby. Iron is required for making baby’s blood as well as for maintaining mothers own iron levels. Milk and vegetables are must-haves during pregnancy. Include variety of foods in the diet like whole grains, pulses, legumes and nuts. Meat, poultry, eggs and fish also provide protein. Incorporate whole fruits and vegetables and whole pulses and grain cereals that contain plenty of fibres. Drink plenty of water.

Here’s what our expert Sonali Shivlani, an Internationally Certified Pregnancy, Lactation and Child Nutrition Counsellor, has to say about one’s diet and eating habits change during pregnancy.

Remember that a baby even at full term weighs only around three kilos. You need to increase your calorie consumption only by about 500 calories daily. Just two slices of bread, a glass of milk and an extra fruit per day are enough to complete the extra calories requirement. You must also remember that there are various hormonal changes and food gets digested more slowly. So eat small meals. The baby needs to be fed constantly so eat every two to three hours. Small mini-meals can help prevent common pregnancy complaints like acidity, nausea and that bloated feeling.

Read: Pregnancy:The Safe Stuff to Eat

The need to gain weight during pregnancy

Weight gain during pregnancy helps nourish the baby and accumulate calories to produce milk for breast-feeding. You should gain weight at a steady pace. Inconsistent weight gain, too little or too much, can affect your baby adversely. Gaining very little weight during pregnancy can lead to premature delivery and low birth weight. It may also cause developmental delays and chronic health problems in your baby. On the contrary, putting on too much weight increases your risk of high blood pressure (pre-eclampsia) and gestational diabetes. It may also lead to an overweight or obese baby which may necessitate a cesarean birth. You may also have a tendency to retain too much weight after pregnancy which may cause higher weight and its accompanying problems in subsequent pregnancies.

Ideal weight gain during pregnancy

How much weight you should gain during your pregnancy depends on your body mass index or BMI (your body weight divided by the square of your height) before you conceived. And if you are expecting twins it becomes particularly important to gain the correct amount of weight because twins are often born before the due date.

• If you had a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 (average weight) before conceiving you should ideally have a weight gain between 11 and 16 kg.  For the optimal growth of your baby you should gain around half a kg to 2 kg in the first trimester and about 2 kg every month thereafter for the rest of your pregnancy. If you are pregnant with twins, you should gain 18 to 23 kg.
• If your pre-pregnancy BMI was below 18.5 (underweight) you should gain 12 to 18 kg.
• If you had a BMI of 25 to 29.9 (overweight) you should gain around 7 to 11 kg.  If pregnant with twins, you should gain around 14 to 22 kg.
• If you had a BMI of 30 or higher (obese), you should gain between 5 to 10 kg and around 11 to 19 kg if you are pregnant with twins.

Read: Your most common pregnancy queries answered

The distribution of extra weight during pregnancy

Your baby will account for the 3.5 kg of your extra weight (11-16 kg). The rest of the extra weight is due to placenta (1-1.5 kg), amniotic fluid (1-1.5 kg), breast tissue (1-1.5 kg), blood supply (2 kg), stored fat (2-4 kg) and increased uterus size (1-2 kg).

It has taken you nine months to put on the weight. So, it’s fair enough that you may take just as long to reduce it. Most of the weight gained during pregnancy is lost soon after you give birth (weight of child, placenta, amniotic fluid and blood supply). In the first six weeks after delivery most women lose half of the weight they gained during pregnancy. With a healthy diet and regular exercise you can shed the extra kilos and keep them off for good.

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Q: My wife is in her 8th month of pregnancy. Her recent ultrasonography showed that the baby’s supratentorial ventricles were dilated. What does this mean? And how can I help my baby?

Answer:

When a foetus is being formed, the brain is divided into the various ventricles. During this formation it is normal to see some amount of fluid build up in the brain. This usually resolves before the baby is born. In this case if in the 8^th month of pregnancy the fluid is still present in the baby’s brain, it could indicate a condition called hydrocephalus. This is a disease where excess cerebrospinal fluid builds up around the brain. In most cases a small shunt is inserted which helps to release the excess fluid. Once your child is born, your doctor will be better equipped to diagnose and treat your child, if there are any deformities.

Weird pregnancy craving 1: Cigarette ashes

Nice tasty serving of cigarette ashes anyone? The American Pregnancy Association carried out a survey which revealed that cigarette ashes are one of the most craved non-food items of all time. Some women who have this odd craving admit that they have not only sniffed, but also actually ingested cigarette ashes during their pregnancy (don’t try this yourselves) whether they were smokers before their pregnancy or not.

Weird pregnancy craving 2: Charcoal

Drinking it, eating it, sniffing it; it doesn’t matter how they desire it, some pregnant women just can’t stop thinking about gorging on charcoal. These cravings for non-food items are known as ‘pica‘ and they affect around 25 to 30 per cent of pregnant women. Charcoal is a perfect example of this; some pregnant women admit that they just can’t seem to curb their craving for it. Charcoal is used medically in emergency situations to absorb toxins in patients’ bodies to prevent poisoning from toxic substances such as paint thinner, boric acid and cleaning products. Although this can save lives in certain circumstances, it’s important not to give in to charcoal cravings because it will absorb all of the important nutrients that mother and baby need.

Weird pregnancy craving 3: Soil

Items to get in the grocery shop: bread, milk, eggs, soil… soil? Yep. Some pregnant women out there can’t seem to stop salivating over soil. Whatever it is that causes this craving, you’re not alone if you experience this too. Britney Spears revealed that during her pregnancy with her second son, she couldn’t stop thinking about a generous serving of soil alongside her fried chicken cravings. This strange desire turns out to be quite common; in a 2008 survey of pregnant women, mud made it into the list of top 10 pregnancy cravings. Although there is no scientific evidence to suggest why this craving can occur, scientists suggest that the desire for soil during pregnancy could be the subconscious need for pre-natal vitamins such as copper and iron, which soil is brimming with. Ingesting dirt is also believed to ease morning sickness, although with all those bugs and parasites we certainly wouldn’t recommend it.

Weird pregnancy craving 4: Raw onion

One minute you’re heaving at the mere thought of eating a raw onion and the next you can’t seem to get enough of them. Raw onions – as unappetising as they may sound – are a pretty common food item to crave when you’re pregnant. There is no evidence to suggest that raw onions are unsafe to eat when you’re expecting, as long as they are consumed in moderation and as part of a healthy balanced diet.  There are raw foods out there that pregnant mothers should avoid though, such as raw fish. So as long as you can fit raw onions into a balanced diet and those around you can tolerate your onion breath, munch away!

Weird pregnancy craving 5: Paint

Forget slathering it on the walls, some pregnant women can think of nothing better than a good serving of paint. Some have even admitted to licking the walls and inhaling the smell of freshly painted rooms to satisfy their craving. It’s important that if you do experience this, you substitute it with something else; try chewing on some sugar free gum to refresh your mouth and help you to forget about your craving. Paint is abundant with toxic chemicals so you should avoid freshly decorated rooms as much as possible during your pregnancy.

Weird pregnancy craving 6: Fried eggs with mint sauce

Some women don’t crave non-food items, but they do have some rather elaborate ones all the same. A recent survey by a mother and baby social network site revealed that not only were eggs and mint sauce a common weird craving combination for mothers, but other more intricate concoctions such as tuna with banana, and sponge cake with tomato sauce were revealed too. Scientists suggest that pregnant mothers who are feeling emotionally stressed subconsciously revert back to foods and items that remind them of their childhood. Luckily, experts propose that sometimes all these women really need is some emotional support in the form of a big long hug.

Weird pregnancy craving 7: Ice

Some pregnant mothers have admitted to crunching their way through ice, despite its distinct lack of taste. Scientists suggest that it’s not all about taste but more about the actual texture. Although eating ice won’t harm you or your baby, carrot sticks provide a nutritious way of kicking the craving instead. Experts suggest that a healthy nutritious breakfast is the key to reducing these cravings by 50 per cent too. By filling your stomach up with healthy food from the start of the day, you’re less likely to reach for the soil, paint, fried eggs with mint sauce, or whatever else you fancy when you’re feeling peckish during pregnancy.

If you have cravings for non-food items, speak to your GP as soon as possible. They will be able to carry out the appropriate tests to ensure that you are getting all the essential vitamins and nutrients for a healthy baby and mother.