A Mom's Confessions On Pregnancy Cravings

The most wonderful experience prior to being a mom is that of conceiving a baby. I'm sure you fellow mothers have had that thrill of conceiving a life in your tummy, plus the curiosity whether it was a boy or a girl, dad or mom look-alike. I had my first pregnancy about two decades ago. After getting tired of my daughter's demand for a baby brother or sister, I finally got pregnant with my second baby.

It might sound unbelievable, but I already had an idea that I was conceiving a baby girl at three months age of gestation with my first pregnancy. Call it intuition or divine revelation. With the second one, as early as first month, my husband knew that we would have a baby boy. And I became at peace to agree with him when I saw a handsome baby boy in one of my dreams two months later.

I guess it helps to be spiritual when one is pregnant. Ironically, though, some pregnant women turn too unspiritual in relation to their cravings. Appetites may grow wild, and I don't know why mine were more insatiable in the second compared to my first pregnancy.

I started craving for fried fish balls, homemade granola, kimchi and roast tenderloin with mashed potato and gravy. I also craved for an American friend's barbecue burger, a Filipino friend's chicken adobo, a New Zealander friend's pork stew, a Norwegian friend's apple cake, Mexican tortillas and the best Italian pizza in town. All of which made me wonder, "Does my baby need all those food and will he come out and grow up to be multi-cultural?"

BabyCenter quotes from Judith Brown's studies in the University of Minnesota: "There's no scientific explanation for food cravings. There's no data saying that what a woman craves is related to something her body or her baby needs, and there's no data to support that typical pregnancy food cravings are harmful, either."

A friend of mine says that food cravings are simply exaggerations or overreactions. She had not gone through any sort with her two pregnancies. But  for others like me whose tummies would often complain with a conventional menu and who would almost go crazy with unfulfilled appetites, these cravings are real and shouldn't be ignored.

For the husbands of young moms out there who can identify with my being pretty picky and a little greedy, it's the best time to empathize with your wives. As long as it won't harm the mom's or the baby's health, better be supportive by making it a point to cook or buy the food they want to eat. Surely, you wouldn't want your preggy wives to feel deprived or starved. Would you?