Recently, a viral Reddit thread asked pregnant women and moms, "What's the worst/craziest advice someone has given you about your pregnancy?"
And, oh baby, pregnant women have been subjected to some real whoppers. Here are the most eyebrow-raising responses:
1. "I was told that I need to shave down there or the baby will get carpet burn."
2. "I was eating an apple with peanut butter on it during my lunch break when a coworker told me that eating peanut butter would give my baby cancer."
3. "I was told my labor should be painless because Jesus died and erased the 'pain during childbirth' penalty humans got from Eve. If I feel pain, it’s because I don’t believe in Jesus’s redemptive powers."
4. "The lady at the counter in the village bakery told me that I should smear SEMEN on my face to get rid of pregnancy acne. It was the first time I’d ever met her."
5. "My mother-in-law told me it's OK to drink mixed drinks. She went on to say that my husband was a margarita baby. I now call him that when he gets on my nerves."
6. "If you raise your arms above your head, it will tangle the baby’s cord and the baby will die."
7. "I was told that because the baby grows inside the mother's stomach, everything she eats or drinks just falls right onto the baby."
8. "When I was pregnant past my due date a coworker advised me to drink cod liver oil mixed with vodka. Apparently this mixture would upset my digestive system, give me horrible diarrhea, and trigger labor contractions."
"I did not drink this combo and instead was medically induced several days later. Labor/delivery was swift and my baby was healthy."
9. "Someone told my significant other not to bathe because the baby would drown. Their thinking was that the umbilical cord acted as a sort of snorkel from the baby to the mother's navel. If the navel was submerged, the baby wouldn't be able to get air."
10. "Not to drink hot tea because if I did I'd boil my baby."
11. "My sister had to have an emergency C-section, and her mother-in-law said she wouldn’t be a 'real woman' unless she had a vaginal birth."
12. "Someone told me not to drink water because it causes nausea."
13. "Don't sit on stairs — it will cause you to have a miscarriage."
14. "My midwife told me, 'Don’t worry about the swelling and high blood pressure, thats normal,' days before I had to be induced due to preeclampsia."
15. "I was eight months pregnant when I mentioned at a family dinner that I was scared of labor. My gram shouted, 'You should smoke a blunt!'"
"I just looked at her as she added, 'If you smoke blunts while you're in labor it will keep you calm and help with the pain. I’ll find you some weed — just smoke in the bathroom of the hospital. But wear socks. You have ugly feet and the doctor won’t want to help you if he sees your cracked heels.'”
16. "My mom was told that drinking beer would help her baby develop and be nice and chubby. I was five weeks early and barely six pounds."
17. "My mother-in-law told me not to stand under a full moon."
18. "Someone told me to put baking soda in a cup and piss on it first thing in the morning to find out what I was having. They said if it fizzed, I was pregnant with a boy. If it didn't fizz, I was having a girl."
19. "My grandma told me not to argue with my husband because it would cause the baby to be 'fussy' and 'difficult.'”
20. "I was told that heartburn during the pregnancy meant that the child had a lot of head hair. I had a shitload of heartburn. My kid barely had hair."
21. "The lady giving me a pedicure suggested I let my husband have extramarital affairs for a few months postpartum so I could recover."
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.