Do you believe in old wives' tales? Especially those concerning pregnancy and confinement and such. What is deemed acceptable and what is considered ridiculuos?
I was having sahur with my parents not a few minutes ago and my mom asked me
Mom : Have you been drinking ayaq nyok )(that's coconut drink for my non-malaysian reader)?
me : Err.. yes
Mom : You know you can't drink that. People in your condition cannot drink ayaq nyok forever.
me : What condition?
Mom : You know... it will make you kembang urat (hmmm have no idea what this is equivalent to in english.. expansion of the vein???)
What she meant by "my condition" was that: should I have more children it will result in premature births. Before having Nadiah, I was pregnant for the first time with a baby boy. Upon reaching my sixth month, my water broke and I was experiencing, what I did not know then, some normal signs of pre-birth. Except for the contraction pain. I was spotting and by the time I went to see the OBGYN, and upon checking down there, he pronounced that the baby was coming and he could already feel the feet and if I had kept on walking about, the baby would just slid out of me!! How scary was that? Everything was a blur to me after that but within an hour or so I was in the delivery room and was duely induced and was pushing for the baby to come out. It only took a few minutes and a tiny baby boy appeared. I could hear him crying for a little while and saw the doctor putting him in the kidney shaped dish thingy. He was so tiny. Unfortunately due to his smallness and underdeveloped organs, he did not survive the night. My husband took him home for the funeral preparation and was safely buried the next morning. We named him Alif Imran. My OBGYN imformed me that the premature birth was due to cervix incompetence.
Just a few months after that, I was deliriously happy with the news that I was pregnant again. I took extra precaution and had my cervix stitch at four months gestation so that the baby would stay put this time. I also stopped working right after the stitching surgery and would just laze around the house. By this time people (and by people I mean well-intentioned relatives) were telling me I all sorts of dos and don'ts.
But despite all my cautious conducts, Nadiah was still premature. But this time it wasn't due to my cervix being incompetent (remember I had them stictched earlier on), it was due to hypertension. This resulted in the tearing of the placenta from the uterine wall and causing a substantial amount of bleeding. By the time they opened me up, the baby was laying in a pool of blood. Alhamdulillah everything went well and Nadiah was born healthy despite being small. She weighed at 1.9kg.
So the quetion is, what about all those dos and don'ts? Do they really work? I mean, yes we can be the most prudent person in the world but there is no going against fate. Que sera sera - whatever will be, will be.
The funny thing is, I have never liked ayaq nyok. Not until just this past few days. Will my drinking it effect my chances at having more children in the future? I guess we'll just have to see, won't we?
I was having sahur with my parents not a few minutes ago and my mom asked me
Mom : Have you been drinking ayaq nyok )(that's coconut drink for my non-malaysian reader)?
me : Err.. yes
Mom : You know you can't drink that. People in your condition cannot drink ayaq nyok forever.
me : What condition?
Mom : You know... it will make you kembang urat (hmmm have no idea what this is equivalent to in english.. expansion of the vein???)
What she meant by "my condition" was that: should I have more children it will result in premature births. Before having Nadiah, I was pregnant for the first time with a baby boy. Upon reaching my sixth month, my water broke and I was experiencing, what I did not know then, some normal signs of pre-birth. Except for the contraction pain. I was spotting and by the time I went to see the OBGYN, and upon checking down there, he pronounced that the baby was coming and he could already feel the feet and if I had kept on walking about, the baby would just slid out of me!! How scary was that? Everything was a blur to me after that but within an hour or so I was in the delivery room and was duely induced and was pushing for the baby to come out. It only took a few minutes and a tiny baby boy appeared. I could hear him crying for a little while and saw the doctor putting him in the kidney shaped dish thingy. He was so tiny. Unfortunately due to his smallness and underdeveloped organs, he did not survive the night. My husband took him home for the funeral preparation and was safely buried the next morning. We named him Alif Imran. My OBGYN imformed me that the premature birth was due to cervix incompetence.
Just a few months after that, I was deliriously happy with the news that I was pregnant again. I took extra precaution and had my cervix stitch at four months gestation so that the baby would stay put this time. I also stopped working right after the stitching surgery and would just laze around the house. By this time people (and by people I mean well-intentioned relatives) were telling me I all sorts of dos and don'ts.
- no drinking tea as it is "cooling"
- no pineapple as it is very "tajam"
- no carbonated drinks as it is also "tajam"
- put my feet up against a wall so there is less pressure upon the cervix
- don't walk too much as this would also put pressure upon the cervix
- no eating all sorts of beans for I don't know what reason
- do not let anyone walk pass behind you or your baby would take after that person (not sure how this is possible if you're walking out in public)
- do not "tegur" other people's children's shortcomings or your baby would end up like that or worse
- do not look at weird pictures if your don't want your baby looking like the picture instead look at cute baby pictures and your baby may come out very cute and cuddly (but aren't all babies cute and cuddly??)
- etc etc etc
But despite all my cautious conducts, Nadiah was still premature. But this time it wasn't due to my cervix being incompetent (remember I had them stictched earlier on), it was due to hypertension. This resulted in the tearing of the placenta from the uterine wall and causing a substantial amount of bleeding. By the time they opened me up, the baby was laying in a pool of blood. Alhamdulillah everything went well and Nadiah was born healthy despite being small. She weighed at 1.9kg.
So the quetion is, what about all those dos and don'ts? Do they really work? I mean, yes we can be the most prudent person in the world but there is no going against fate. Que sera sera - whatever will be, will be.
The funny thing is, I have never liked ayaq nyok. Not until just this past few days. Will my drinking it effect my chances at having more children in the future? I guess we'll just have to see, won't we?
3 comments:
Hi Yatie,
Ever since Iza had linked ur blog to hers, i've been reading your entries... anyway, this is my first comment ehhehehe (of many, maybe).
Back to the subject... I never followed any of the "warnings" that was passed on to me while I was preggers. But what i practiced was to be happy, relaxed and just taking good care of myself. Allah decides whatever and however.
Oh, I actually did practice drinking soya milk ( cos I love soya milk minus the sugar syrup) and everybody at the office expected my darling Ainul will be fair when she is born (cos u must have heard that supposedly drinking soya milk will make the baby's skins milky white)... but she is NOT. Funny thing is, both me and my hubby are fair... must be the genes on my dad's penang side ehehehhe.
We're always blessed.
Aida.
Hi Aida, thanks for dropping by.
Yup, I heard of the milky white skin tale but the ones that I've heard is by drinking just milk. I did drink milk everyday either on it's own or with cereal. Alas! It's just a fable. I guess you're right, genes do put a strong hand in it. It'll be kinda weird if Nadiah has milky white skin while both Shukri and I are... on the other side of the fence!! Heheh!!
Salam..Yatie,good job on your blog! Iza too..I wish I can be as creative as you gals.
On the preggy subject, last time I took "Salindah" starting from 2nd trimester, bought from Homeopathy Dr Azizan (Jitra). Dah dekat la ngan tempat u. I pun suka minum soya & barley masa tuh (home made lagi, my mum lah yg rajin dok buat). Susu, kureng lah, I'm not a susu fan! As Aida said, just be happy and take good care of yourself. Allah swt decides what's best for us. Amalkan bacaan AlQuran, the least Surah Maryam, Yusuf & Luqman. Getting pregnant and having a child is such a great blessings. We should all be thankful to Him. Take care dear, I pray that you succeed in conceiving very soon InsyaAllah … :-)
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