to ask for the most bizarre advice you've been given after this gem from my mum (lighthearted)

[CherryChasingDotMuncher]

I'm due baby no 2 in 5 weeks, I work in the hospital I'm giving birth in, and my mum also used to work there about 10 years ago.

I work closely with the chief executive in my job and am in the office next door. My mum has told me that when I go in to give birth, to get "star treatment" and a room of my own in postnatal, I should tell them that I work next door to the chief exec and they will give me what I want.

I actually giggled as I could imagine just how obnoxious I'd sound rolling in mid-contraction and saying "I work with the chief exec you know. What you gonna do with that information?" And then having midwives flocking round giving me pedicures and the like

She is adamant she's right! I joked that he's universally disliked to they'd probably put me in the corridor if anything! Even if I did have the brass neck to say this, I really would rather a side room go to a woman who needs one, and although I'm a high-risk birth it probably wouldn't be me! I'd rather have one on the premise of actually needing one, not because of who I "know".

It inspired me to ask the members of MN for the most bizarre advice you've been given?

My gran used to put olive oil on everything. She was Italian.

My nan used to sleep with a bag of sherry corks at the bottom of her bed, she swore it prevented cramps, as pp have said.

OP, your mum's partly right. The difference that if anyone knows you're connected to the Chief Exec you'll get star treatment, but if you ask for/demand it you'll get short shrift.
I used to work in an NHS hospital where a regular patient was the mother of a prominent politician who shortly after I left became a cabinet minister. Stapled to the front of her case notes was an A4, handwritten sheet of paper which identified her as the mother of X and requiring that she be given priority. She was, by all accounts, a nice woman, but she never had to wait to be seen and her case notes were always available at every clinic, even when she'd had appointments at different sites on the same day. This was not the case for all other patients. Heads rolled if anything went wrong during her appointments and I was threatened with dismissal on an occasion when her notes were not available when she arrived. They were in transit between sites between multi-site appointments that were 2 hours apart (she'd come over in a hospital-funded taxi so arrived 30 mins early).
If you are known to be well connected you are well looked after by those who don't fancy getting their arses kicked by senior management.

Itchy sadly I think the 'beware Muslims in lifts' comment was down to a combined overdose of UKIP Facebook pages & the Daily Mail .

Unfortunately she has a tendency to believe everything she reads and doesn't choose her reading material wisely.

I have suffered with heavy painful periods since teens (since diagnosed as endometriosis) and my usually very sensible and liberal mother told me that when I was put in the pill at 15 ( by my dr for my periods) it was a special kind of pill that didn't stop you getting pregnant - presumably assuming that I was going to go and start shagging everything in sight otherwise. She also discouraged me from using tampons as apparently you couldn't use them til after you had children. . She nearly had a coronary when I started using super plus (which I had to buy myself and clearly needed for my flow)

I wonder if the corks/soap/potato thing works with cramps because when your leg touches them in your sleep, you subconsciously keep moving it so that it never stays still long enough for a cramp to occur?

Weird, but I'm deffo going to try it - I have them every now and again and they are agony. Love this thread!

Oh and when my granny used to dress me she used to pull my woolly tights right up to "keep my kidneys warm". I am a doctor and have never come across any ailment that is caused by cold kidneys.

DoctorBeat my mum gave me the same "guidance" about tampons...how it was better to wait until I'd had "relations", as she put it. This makes her sound like some kind of middle-age, middle-class sop, but the irony is that she was a 17-year old pregnant bride.

My DM used to tell my sister how she tried using tampons once on a beach holiday when she was a virgin "but if the hymen is intact, it just pushes them back out".

My sister got some weird looks from our parents when she started using them age 17 (and a virgin). The school nurse had told us by then that this wasn't true...

DoctorBeat I wish you'd explain the kidney thing to my MIL, she drives DH mad by banging on about keeping his back warm or he'll get a chill in his kidneys. She has a thing about chills, my baby has reflux and she insists on telling everyone that he has "a chill in his tummy"

JingleJess Maybe with the soap and potatoes, but I keep my corks under the pillow so that theory doesn't work.

I couldn't read past page 2, some of these are actually old but sound advice. Drinking liquid paraffin is the same as castor oil (old school no longer recommended but suggested 30+ yrs ago). Rectal soap, shaped like a suppository still valid to this day and not far from a soap suds enema.
Hospital staff preferential treatment still practiced when possible.

Argh!! Children do grow while they sleep, because when standing the effect of gravity prevents it. I need to step away some of this stuff isn't daft....again cod liver oil/castor oil same easy delivery concept

I remember reading the leaflet in a box of Lilets that contained the assurance that using a tampon would not break your hymen or mean you weren't a virgin any more - so it was obviously a concern sufficient to warrant mention

23 years ago when I developed rheumatoid arthritis,my late DM told me that it was probably caused by me drinking too much diet coke!

So many of these are NOT bizarre at all:

-Glycerine (i.e. like soap!) suppositories are still prescribed today for constipation! I mean I wouldn't risk inserting ANYTHING internally into a baby, but the actual science is sound.

You often do get discounts for paying in full (i.e. cash), not all the time but frequently enough that it's worth asking for, I've had discounts from Currys, Maplin, car dealerships etc as well as independant retailers.

Not washing your hair on your period - I have actually fainted in the shower on my period. My GP confirmed that that was why. It's not that hard to understand if your iron is low and you feel drained then go from cold to hot and that dumps your bloodpressure…

Cramps: At a wild guess: soaps are actually a form of salts (from a chemistry point of view, see ingredients, usually say at the top "sodium-something" or "potassium-something". Cramps are often caused by being low in certain salts. Soap also melts when heated - so with your body heat maybe that's it?

My MIL advised me that I should not, under any circumstances, buy a tumble dryer because one use a week will triple our electricity bill. I tried explaining that they are now more energy efficient. She ignored what I was saying and finished the call by telling me not to buy a tumble dryer as she would give me her twenty year old tumble dryer as she never used it!!!!

Never go to bed with wet hair because you'll wake up with a headache

No crop tops allowed, even in summer, because otherwise your kidneys will get too cold and something dire will happen to them (however, central heating was not considered necessary unless there was a covering of snow on the ground outside and you were shivering while wearing your coat indoors )

All employers want to see is top grades. Don't even think about doing any part time work or work experience while you're studying. A 1st in your degree is all you need (good job I ignored that one!). Naturally things are exactly the same for people doing humanities degrees in the late 00s as they were for people doing STEM degrees in the 70s....!

The one from exmil on ward after cesarean; she kept swiping my orange juice, tutting that it woukd curdle my milk as I was bf dd.

Put egg white on baby's bum if he has nappy rash (my grandmother's advice). I was young and unassertive... my poor son!

"MIL when dd asked for milk after eating a satsuma 'No! It will curdle in your tummy and make you sick'." My parents still won't have milk at the same time as fresh fruit - but tinned 'fruit salad' with custard is apparently fine

Yes some of these do have basis in fact but some are hilariously batshit!

My mother swore you should only shower not bath when menstruating, I have low blood pressure anyway and prone to fainting this just caused more fainting!

Also had the 'only non virgins can use tampons' crap.

Oh yes and ex mil telling me I couldn't have fizzy juice while breastfeeding as it would give baby hiccups!

Itsallaboutme my DGM believed in butter as a cure all too, even after ahe apilled boiling water on my DM then rubbed butter on the burn, essentially frying the skin. DM still has the scar

Hiccups! That's great.
Actually, dd went yellow with jaundice and exmil and dm had shouty argument about the role of my oj in dd skin turning. My dear ma saw the fruitcake off.

Top tip from my mum to pass on to my DD1 for her forthcoming driving test:

Got a tip for [DD] re roundabout outs. Tell her just to look to her right. Ignore all other traffic. Should help her to be able to make right decision when to move off.

Bet her instructor has never explained that