Another reason I am glad I'm old. Competitive placentas.

I'm not grateful for being old often, but one thing I am glad about is that I am not having children in 2016.  It just seems so stressful. And competitive. I get anxious just reading about it.

Today while sitting in a doctors surgery I read an article titled 'What I ate when I was pregnant" The author of the article went on to say that she had a really healthy placenta because she ate well during her pregnancy. Apparently she knew her placenta was healthy because the mid wife told her it was. Well call me crazy but I thought that all placentas that produced a baby where pretty much all healthy. It didn't require a special diet of fermented breads, dandelion teas and bone broth.

I have had three babies- one in 1994, one in 1996 and another in 2005. I managed to produce three healthy babies without a fermented bread in sight. In my day the only thing you didn't eat was brie, polony and salami. (Sushi wasn't invented then- well it was but you know what I mean). In fact one of babies who shall remain nameless  was fed almost exclusively on a diet of Mc Chicken burgers. The only time this diet varied was when I went to Italy and the said child then survived on gelato. Funnily enough I don't think she likes ice cream all that much. Or McChickens.

The author of this article craved oranges and she ate lots of them. Apparently this was because she was low in iron. I craved nail polish remover. Not to drink, but to smell. I inhaled it. Couldn't get enough. Not sure what that meant I was low in. Nails? I also craved ice. The water ice, not the drug ice. I would get a large diet coke with my Mc Chickens ( didn't want those extra calories) and ask for extra ice. I would chomp away on that ice for hours. 

The author also did some gentle exercise like yoga and beach walks. I did not exercise with the first and put on 24kgs, ( to be fair I did think it was maybe my Mc Diet until I was pregnant with my second). I exercised with the second and ate kind of well (except for when the baby wanted a mars bar, because when the baby wants a mars bar, the baby wants a mars bar). I put on 24kgs. To be honest I can't remember what I ate or what I did when I was pregnant with my third. I vaguely remember bread sticks. 24kgs. To.the.kilo.

My point. As long as you are not doing drugs, binge drinking or smoking- you are doing ok. The baby will be fine, your placenta will be healthy. When your child is 16 and drinking cheap wine out of a silver pillow and shovelling bbq shapes down their throat you won't be standing back saying " see how worthwhile it was that I had no sugar when I was pregnant".

So step away from the pasture fed beef and the organic milk and eat what you want to. If that is organic milk and pasture fed beef that is fine. But if it is milk and some steak that comes from Coles with a apricot jam and cheese sandwich on fresh white bread with lots of butter with a carrot cake chaser... thats is ok too. You placenta will be just fine.