Misconceptions Regarding Pregnancy Abound
And, It's From All Sides! Research Everything, Regardless of Source!
This isn’t going to be a piece detailing the misconceptions about pregnancy.
This writing shall instead focus on the fact that even amongst the educated and medically-trained, misconceptions regarding pregnancy are everywhere.
Misconception regarding Prenatal Massage are especially repugnant, as helpful modalities may be unnecessarily shunned due to an ill-defined idea that “it’s dangerous.” (In fact, Prenatal Massage is definitely not!)
That’s just one example; I provide this because, as a Perinatal LMT, that’s what I often encounter.
But it doesn’t stop there. Your family may bring many misconceptions; yes, even the women!
While some misconceptions are grounded in a misogynistic view of health and women’s bodies, many more misconceptions have little to do with this phenomenon, are are purely rooted in a lack of factual data, on the part of the person propagating the falsehood.
It’s everyone, regardless of role in your life, who spreads pregnancy misinformation, potentially.
So it might be your neighbors. It could be the nurse, your GP, the LMT, your trusted chiro, the respected acupuncturist, the Ob-Gyb who is so kindly. It could be anyone.
In my practice of Prenatal Massage in New Jersey, and also as a Certified Lactation Professional in NJ, I encounter many women and families who have been provided conflicting information from different medical professionals!
Some of it is clearly wrong. How could this be? It seems that medicine is a lot more than simply looking at the science. A lot of it is the culture inherited by the people who trained us. Textbooks, even, are guilty of conveying misinformation.
When the facts are in, continuing to propagate ideas that have been disproved by science and experimentation is poor practice as a medical professional, but as a neighbor, friend, co-worker, or family member, it’s understandable.
The facts are everything.
What are the facts, even? Can we even know?
The answer, of course, is yes…and no.
Science is a process of cumulative discovery; a new discovery may upset past idea sets; that’s only natural and to be expected when a civilization is progressing.
So, there are research studies. There are interests behind studies that must be considered. Bias, conscious and otherwise. Fraudulent studies. It’s a lot to consider, if you’re trying to create a space for your pregnancy that is based in science, not superstition or wrong info.
Challenge everything your are told or read in a book or online or hear in a video. Don’t accept anything as the final word. That’s not how we should ever approach life, and certainly not life science, and perinatal research specifically!