On one hand, it’s a great time to be pregnant. Women have an incredible amount of resources to help guide them from conception to birth and beyond.
On the other hand, it’s a horrible time to be pregnant. Why? Women have an incredible amount of resources to help guide them from conception to birth and beyond.
When my husband and I found out we were expecting at the beginning of the year, I wanted to take advantage of all the information out there, but was also wary of falling down too many rabbit holes.
That hasn’t stopped me from turning to a few resources — one book, one website and one smartphone app. But when I have a nonpressing question, such as types of fish I shouldn’t eat or how much caffeine is in a small cup of coffee, I admit that I turn to Google.
It can be difficult to limit my information-seeking when I know a few mouse scrolls or flicks of the thumb will bring up endless solutions to my pregnancy-related queries, all purporting to be the best way to solve any particular issue.
I often think about how women throughout history were able to propagate our species without science, doctors or the internet. Obviously with modern advances it’s easier and safer to deliver babies, but women way back when must have figured it out or we wouldn’t all be here.
I am also in awe of women who live in developing countries and have to endure pregnancy and childbirth in far less comfortable conditions than mine. If they are able to have children in challenging circumstances, why do we need — or think we need — so much help in the form of endless reams of information?
I’m not saying that more knowledge is bad. Being a journalist makes me acutely aware of how important good information can be. (Plus, knowing more has helped us live a lot longer than our ancestors.)
Problems arise when people think they are experts on a particular topic and then post about it online. The result is a glut of mediocre information that obscures solid, evidence-based solutions.
One search I did early on regarded what types of tea were OK to drink. Entering the ingredient I was interested in — licorice root — pulled up a host of sites, which mostly agreed that licorice isn’t advised during pregnancy. The reason why, though, varied slightly from site to site. I gleaned that it probably was better to avoid licorice root tea, but I still couldn’t tell you why.
However — and here again is the paradox of being a pregnant woman in this day and age — the internet can also be useful precisely because it gathers information from all kinds of sources. In my searches for the right kind of fish to eat, for example, I’ve come across advice from both the U.S. and other countries. A New Zealand website proved to be more helpful for specific kinds of fish than any U.S. list I could find, as similar species are found in Pacific waters.
But in the end, if you’re looking for any advice concerning medical or dietary concerns, you’re best off getting it from your doctor and not online.
It would be great if I could resist the temptation to look up pregnancy-related questions on the internet, but the habit is so ingrained that it’s almost weird not to fire up my search bar seeking answers. Plus, what else am I going to do when the baby decides to kick me awake at 3 in the morning?
“She Speaks” is a column by women writers of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Reach Celia Downes at cdownes@staradvertiser.com.
