Pregnancy Advice Your Doctor Doesn't Tell You
In Australia, 37% of births are caesarean. For a country that considers itself to have one of the best healthcare systems in the world, that is pretty bad. So here are some common problems people experience during pregnancy and how to deal with them.
Morning sickness and acid reflux:
This is largely solved by going on a low carb diet. Low carb is known to solve many issues, especially GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) and related symptoms. Morning sickness occurs early in the pregnancy, while acid reflux occurs later. Acid reflux probably happens because the baby starts pressing on the stomach and food can be pushed out. A low carb diet is smaller in volume because protein and fat are far more calorie and nutrient dense. We can digest all parts of animal food, while we excrete a large percentage of plant based foods as they are indigestible, like fiber. Less volume means your baby won’t push your food back up your oesophagus. I don’t know why exactly morning sickness occurs and I can’t promise that a low carb diet will fix it, but it fixes GERD related symptoms and everything else.
Acid reflux is very common during pregnancy, as well as in the general population, and typical healthcare advice is pretty useless. There are even billion dollar pharmaceutical organisations that create medications to solve these issues, but a proper diet is a better solution since a bad diet was the cause of the problem in the first place. Such a simple solution and yet people continue to trust mainstream health advice. Most people would not describe themselves as dumb, but if a doctor tells them to keep eating flour and swallowing pills, that’s exactly what they’ll do. If anyone is not sure they can just try it for a week and watch their symptoms improve (although the carb withdrawal part will not feel good).
Gestational diabetes: Also very common during pregnancy. Again, low carb will fix the issue, since it puts diabetes into remission whether you are pregnant or not1. If you are having metabolic issues (almost always because of glucose intolerance), then just stop eating glucose.
Cravings: These aren’t real, in the sense that your body is telling you what the baby needs. They are pretty much just like normal carb cravings. The baby needs animal fats and proteins, not ice cream or pizza. Remember, a low-carb diet is necessarily high in fat. Saturated animal fat, not plant oils. Too much protein will give you issues. You may have difficulty adapting to a diet that is not low in fat - these issues are usually solved by taking lipase (fat digesting enzyme) if your pancreas can no longer produce enough or Betaine HCL to boost your stomach acid levels in case they are too low. You can always ease into it. DO NOT TAKE IF PREGNANT. Or at least do some research/ask your doctor. That was medication advice for non-pregnant people switching their diet.
Contractions: When these occur during pregnancy (early and late stage), the best way to deal with the pain is to assume the correct position. The correct position, as demonstrated below, is also the best position for giving birth. You will quickly notice the pain is reduced.
Inducing labour: When you are approaching the date of delivery, it can be difficult to know when you are ready and so when to head to the hospital and when to stay home. The general rule is when contractions are 3-5 minutes apart, but this doesn’t always apply. You can have contractions at this rate, but they may not be the really intense, painful contractions. There may be some days leading up to it when the pain gets intense and you want to head to the hospital. If you call them they may tell you to wait for another hour to see if the contractions continue at a high rate. Nurses are don’t know as much as they pretend to, they only have experience with lots of cases. Every case is different, so if you want to go in, then go.
1 in 3 Australian women have their labour induced. One way the staff will do this is by giving an oxytocin injection. Another option is to use artificial prostaglandin, or to stimulate the release of real prostaglandin during vaginal examination. These hormones prepare the body for delivery. You have the option of inducing labour yourself, if you are having difficulty sleeping due to the pain of contractions. Sexual intercourse stimulates the release of oxytocin, and human sperm contains a high amount of prostaglandin. Use this method only when the date of delivery is close, you don’t really want to induce labour early.
Labour and birth: Its helpful to remain active leading up to the date of delivery. Moving and jostling around encourages the baby to move into the correct positions at the right times. Go for walks everyday. When you are heading to the hospital, it is probably a good idea to stop the car several hundred metres away and walk the rest. It will be painful and difficult, but ultimately conducive to a smooth delivery. During delivery, do not lie back in a bed at any time. This is probably the worst position to be in, that it came to be the most common position is another testament to the stupidity of doctors. It is now changing, and all hospitals should have several options for different delivery positions.
A forward leaning position is more natural. During delivery, it is easier and more comfortable to get on your hands and knees than to lie on your back. We didn't have beds in our ancestral environment and no one would have done that. Flexible sacrum positions will reduce vaginal tearing and pain during delivery, there are quite a few studies now showing the benefits2.
Water birth: Water births are fine, but it is important to keep the water around room temperature. Do not use warm water. Warm water will relax you and ease the pain, which is exactly what you don’t want. The body is going through contractions in order to push the baby out. Relaxing is the opposite of contracting. Warm water will delay the delivery by 2 hours.
Pain relief: Feel free to use laughing gas. There are many other forms of pain relief, but this is the most common and the most gentle. If you do everything right during the pregnancy there should be no complications and no need for extreme pain relief.
Cord cutting: Do not let the hospital staff clamp and cut the umbilical cord too early. Tell them your concern beforehand. They are getting better these days, but there is no need to clamp it early. Blood flows from the placenta to the baby, and after several minutes it will have finished. It depends on how well the birth went, and how big/healthy the baby is. But it is always better to be safe, so you might as well delay clamping the cord for at least 5 minutes.
I’ve heard that nurses have said things like it is important to clamp the cord early or blood will begin flowing back into the placenta. That is obviously retarded and while most nurses are not that dumb, it is always better to rely on common sense than on a nurse. If you do all these things listed in this article you will probably have a birth that is on time, with a 2 hour delivery, little to no vaginal tearing, no serious complications, and a big healthy baby.
After the birth: Skin to skin contact, breastfeeding etc. It goes without saying, but everybody should breastfeed their baby. The function of dairy is to facilitate weight gain. Breastfed babies are bigger and healthier. It also promotes bonding and good psychological health in your baby.
Krejčí, H., Vyjídák, J., & Kohutiar, M. (2018). Low-carbohydrate diet in diabetes mellitus treatment. Nízkosacharidová strava v léčbě diabetes mellitus. Vnitrni lekarstvi, 64(7-8), 742–752.
Foley P. J. (2021). Effect of low carbohydrate diets on insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome. Current opinion in endocrinology, diabetes, and obesity, 28(5), 463–468. https://doi.org/10.1097/MED.0000000000000659
Wheatley, S. D., Deakin, T. A., Arjomandkhah, N. C., Hollinrake, P. B., & Reeves, T. E. (2021). Low Carbohydrate Dietary Approaches for People With Type 2 Diabetes-A Narrative Review. Frontiers in nutrition, 8, 687658. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2021.687658
Goldenberg, J. Z., Day, A., Brinkworth, G. D., Sato, J., Yamada, S., Jönsson, T., Beardsley, J., Johnson, J. A., Thabane, L., & Johnston, B. C. (2021). Efficacy and safety of low and very low carbohydrate diets for type 2 diabetes remission: systematic review and meta-analysis of published and unpublished randomized trial data. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 372, m4743. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m4743
Edqvist, M., Blix, E., Hegaard, H. K., Ólafsdottir, O. Á., Hildingsson, I., Ingversen, K., Mollberg, M., & Lindgren, H. (2016). Perineal injuries and birth positions among 2992 women with a low risk pregnancy who opted for a homebirth. BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 16(1), 196. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-016-0990-0