Conflicting advice

[mogulfield]

Is anyone else getting annoyed with conflicting advice?! In 2017 I don't understand why we can't use actual science and inform pregnant women properly.

Some examples in this pregnancy...

If you exercise (I swim/run a lot) then 'don't get breathless... you should be able to hold a conversation'.... 'take it very gently', right through to 'exercise as you normally would. Your baby is only in danger if you don't have oxygen and by this point you will have passed out anyway' (that was advice from a Dr).

Other one, runny eggs. Dr says they're fine with the lion stamp (vaccinated chicken), midwife says they're not.

Goats cheese, midwife says no, Dr says it's fine, just make sure it's pasteurised!

It drives me mad, I end up feeling confused and not knowing what to do/feeling guilty for swimming hard/eating runny eggs!

Has anyone else been given conflicting advice?

My midwife said runny eggs are okay as long as they're lion stamped.

Only 'conflicting' advice I was given was over whether or not I was a 'late booker' which resulted in a massive complaint to the hospital but that's another story haha.

I'm sorry to hear that, what do you mean by late booker?

I was told not to do strenuous exercise such as body pump - not the breathless thing tho !

Food - basically I didn't take chances as a friend if my mum had soft cheese at a party in the 1979's and her unborn baby died very soon after - tragic as she never managed to conceive again

I had conflicting advice all through my pregnancy and when dd was born. Very confusing times, but go with your instincts.
I ate runny eggs (lion stamped) but not soft cheeses. Continued with ballet, but didn't do the jumps later on in pregnancy etc .
Most focusing was feeding dd. She lost more than 10% of birth weight so were given lots of advice on feeding plans. We ebf now and it's the best thing for us.

Seeing the midwife late, I was 14 weeks when I booked in and was referred to a consultant but apparently the hospital don't class you as 'booking late' until 16 weeks. Ended up sat in the antenatal clinic 1.5 hours after my appointment time to be asked by a registrar "why are you even here? You don't need to be seen and as you can see we're running extremely late"

I think low impact exercise is fine but don't overdo it.

Completely agree OP! Also in regards to bedding with newborn babies, so much different advice from use just a blanket to absolutely not using a blanket. Also which vitamins to take in which form etc.

Often the NHS info online is different from what my local NHS trust has advised. If in doubt I've just gone with what the MW says, not sure why!

I'm 37 weeks at the moment and it's first baby so have come across this a lot!!

It's so frustrating that in 2017 we can't just have some science thrown at us, instead of outdated beliefs.

The conflicting exercise one was by 2 different people but the same surgery, same healthcare trust etc! It just leaves you wanting to be overly cautious and pregnancy is long and difficult enough as it is without taking my swimming and cheese away*!!

The exercise one is particularly annoying as I've done my own research, and read a few papers and it would appear that fairly hard exercise (not impactful, but breathless)... actually HELPS woman have easier labours/require less interventions and lowers the chance of miscarriage!

pasturised- I do understand the dangers of unpasteurised as flumpys* sad story shows it can harbour bacteria.

lion the blankets things is a nightmare, and consumed much of my time when I had DS! I ended up regliously sticking to the gro bag charts and putting him in the correct tog depending on the gro egg temperature! Without that I don't know what I'd have done.

I bought a couple of different tog sleeping bags and was going to do by room temp but then MW said to use just a blanket as they're too little initially for sleeping bags! I'm just going to roll with it when he gets here, may as well start with how I mean to go on, just blagging it!!

I've had my fair share of conflicting info and agree with your sentiment that we should just rely on science! I guess the difficulty is that very few pregnant women would want to take part in trials to see if things are safe, which is where some of ambiguity comes from as there's not much research. However for what it's worth- I've dyed my hair, eaten soft boiled lion brand eggs and just had a cooked goats cheese tart for lunch. (After reading this thread I got caught in the goats cheese hysteria but the NHS website states you can eat chèvre as long as it's been cooked all the way through). I'm 38 weeks tomorrow but I'm sure once baby's out all the conflicting info I've had re pregnancy will just be replaced by conflicting advice on feeding, sleeping, clothing, bathing... everything I'm sure!! 😂