fasting in ramadan while pregnant?

[yummytummy]

salaam all, have just found out am pregnant and am delighted as tried for a long time. however am a bit worried as was planning to fast in ramadan. i know it is permissible to make up fasts later and not fast now but still feel bad about it. do you think its possible to do a few days of fasting at least and has anyone done so who could advise me?

many thanks

If u get morning sickness probably best to defer. The risks of dehydration etc but also a pity to fast all day & then end up invalidating it by vomiting.

Congratulations!

I would wait and see how you feel. Stay healthy.

See how you feel, I managed it, but I was quite far along and working nights.

If it had been in the first trimester, then I couldn't have done it. Mabrouk btw!

vomiting doesnt invalidate if its done not by purpose? only if it fulfils these critera does it invalidate (on purpose, swallowing it & more than a mouthful) according to hanafi school anyway...

i would start & see how you go. last yr i was preg, i did a lot @ the start, by the end had to miss some as was becoming unwell & seemed to b having a weird effect on gluclose level?

so do give it a try but if you are really unable just make them up. empty stomach does make sickness worse too doesnt it..

& congrats

its woth trying,you could find its alright,my two pgs i tried but didn't manage any more than a few days :-/

I don't know any of the religious angle, so forgive me for barging in (and feel free to tell me to go away), but the recent Freakonomics book referenced some potentially interesting (or potentially twaddle) research about health outcomes for babies whose mothers fasted in early pregnancy.

If you are undecided, it might be worth a read?

Salaams and congrats!

Can I direct you to ramadanfastingandpregnancy.wordpress.com/

As this website deals with fasting in pregnancy really well.

RibenaBerry- health outcomes can often be manipulated to fall on both sides of the tree and therefore would recommend reading the appendix on the website. Its very insightful!

Salaam and congratulations! If you are normally healthy and currently feel well, and can manage to eat a balanced diet and drink 2 litres overnight, then maybe try fasting? Last year I managed nearly 3 weeks before morning sickness kicked in and I felt too unwell to fast, but I felt fine during those first couple of weeks xx

I didn't fast both times and I am glad that I didn't as my I ended up giving birth 3 months early the first time. He was just over 2lbs & managed to survive Alhamdulillah but if I had fasted he would have been smaller & very likely that he wouldn't have done. It is so important to get the right nutrients to the developing baby, I would not take any chances. It is permissable not to fast and make it up later so why take a risk? You can still be part of Ramadhan by praying and doing extra charitable deeds.

I see its an old thread but relevant seeing as its Ramadan..

A close relative of mine is an alim (Islamic scholar) and he advises not to fast in Ramadhan atm as the summer fasts are far too long for a pregnant lady to be going without food or water. In fact in Islam it is sinful to deliberately put yourself at risk of health complications as well as the life of the unborn child.

Some ladies may manage to fast of course, a pregnant friend kept a few last year but the foetus stopped gaining any weight so was advised by midwife and her family to stop being stubborn make them up later. I really would not keep them yet if I was pregnant, regardless of whichever trimester I be at.

I think if pregnant the current fast which is something like 4am to around 10pm and longer in the far north of scotland ( where at midsummer the sun only sets for about 3 hours )is not really healthy in pregnancy if you were in mecca it would be more like 12 hours fasting not 18-20 hours

out of interest what would happen in places north of arctic circle where actually the sun does not set for around 4 weeks at this time of year because no one could actually completely fast for that long

Sarah

I asked that, the answer is that you use the times from the nearest city.

but the nearest city would be tromso which is also north of arctic circle and this year the sun does not set for about 3 weeks not even the fittest could survive for 3 weeks with no food or water

Does it mean use the times of the nearest city where the sun does set each day?

Sorry to barge in. I'm not a muslim but have lived in a muslim country and worked at their embassy in Sweden for a while some years ago. When I asked about fasting in the summer, my boss told me that they followed "Mecca time".

I'm also not a muslim. I don't understand why everywhere doesn't just follow Mecca time?

sarah

Interesting little article from the bbc about Muslims in Finland. Some are attempting local time, although it is daylight the sun does dip below the horizon. Some people are using that, some are using Mecca time and others are using Turkish time.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19199411

living just north of Glasgow though technically sun set 20 minutes ago at 9.55 you could easily read a book outside and will be able to for at least another hour it will be well after 11pm before you can not distinguish black from white, similarily though sunrise tomorrow is technically at 5am it will be light from well before 4am though that would give you about 4-5 hours to eat

i used to live further north in scotland and would tend to agree that around 23rd june etc it is never properly dark you cna always see a faint glow of light on the northern horizon

now of course it is almost a month past the summer solistice but if ramadan had been a couple of weeks earlier it would have been more difficult as the further north you are the longer the gap between sunset and darkness at the equator it is completely dark within 10-15 minutes of sunset; in London it takes about 1 hour, in Shetland isles about 90 minutes after sunset, hence the lack of total darkness in june