A new book examines the scientific facts behind pregnancy advice so women can make their own choices, writes ARMINTA WALLACE
Does the world really need another pregnancy book? Having a baby has already become a nine-month minefield of dos and don’ts, ifs and buts – and “helpful” advice which is often anything but helpful.
Bumpology, though, is different. Written as a series of questions and subtitled An Evidence-Based Guide to Bumps, Birth and Beyond, it pokes a scientific scalpel into all the myths, anecdotes, scraps of hearsay and scary monsters which lurk in the expectant-parent undergrowth.
“When I was pregnant for the first time three years ago,” says author Linda Geddes, “I felt bombarded with advice from newspapers, from doctors, friends and even strangers in the street, telling me I shouldn’t be having a glass of wine with my dinner or carrying a suitcase up a flight of stairs.”
New worries
She ended up confused, conflicted and permanently guilt-stricken. “Every week, expectant parents are given new things to worry about,” she writes in the foreword to the book. “Pregnant women mustn’t eat too much as it may raise the baby’s risk of obesity or diabetes, but we mustn’t diet as that could have a similar effect. Neither can we exercise, for fear of triggering a miscarriage. It’s enough to raise your blood pressure just thinking about it; only we mustn’t get stressed because that’s bad for the baby too . . .”
During her second pregnancy, rather than just get mad, Geddes decided to get even. A writer with New Scientist magazine on biology, medicine and technology, she was well placed to make a systematic study of research papers, ask pointed questions of doctors, scientists and specialists – and present her findings in a readable, humorous, easy-going style.
Bumpology is written as a series of questions with short, essay-style summaries of the most up-to-date research on each topic. The questions range from the severely practical – How much alcohol is it safe to drink during pregnancy? How dangerous is it to eat Camembert and blue cheese? – to the wonderfully whimsical. Can unborn babies taste what Mum is eating? Do babies like some people better than others?
Obsessed
This second type of question, Geddes confesses, was the kind that really obsessed her during her own pregnancies. “Every week I’d be scouring the internet for more information about what the baby was doing this week,” she says. “And all I could find was just really trivial stuff like ‘Now your baby is growing fingernails’ or, ‘Its eyelids are opening’ or, ‘It has eyelashes’.
“I wanted to know what it was doing in there. Whether it was conscious. Whether it could taste what I was eating or hear conversations I was having.”
Does she come up with simple answers? Wait for it, as they say in the skincare advert: here comes the science. Science often has conflicting things to say. Sometimes it has nothing to say.
As to whether it’s okay to drink alcohol during pregnancy, for example, Geddes runs through the list of countries which advise total abstinence – including the UK, the US, Ireland, France and Australia – before quoting a review of 46 scientific papers which looked at the effects of low to moderate drinking.
There was no increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth or birth defects: but there were plenty of flaws in the studies. “The truth,” Geddes concludes, “is that no one really knows what constitutes a ‘safe’ amount of alcohol.” So doctors err on the side of caution and advise abstinence, because it’s easier to measure. She herself advises abstinence during the risky first trimester, and an occasional drink thereafter – not more than one or two units once or twice a week.
But Geddes is not in the business of telling women what to do. Rather, she’s trying to equip them with the facts they need in order to weigh up risks and make decisions for themselves. She offers a useful guide to “scientific studies” – basically, if a study features fewer than 100 people, ignore it – and a breakdown of risk statistics which distinguish relative risk from absolute risk. Even then, she says, women should balance potential risk with potential benefit.
If she had one piece of advice for women, what would it be? “I think one of my main messages is that there’s an awful lot of unnecessary worries about pregnancy – and about babies,” she says. “I hope women who read my book learn to feel a whole lot less anxious about the whole thing. Of course there are some things that you need to think about. But there are lots of things that you hear that you don’t really need to think about. “What’s far more important is to create the mental space to marvel at this truly amazing little creature – and just enjoy it.”
Bumpology, by Linda Geddes, is published by Bantam Press at £14.99
