A Baby Built By Whole Grains, An unforseeable Truth

My first pregnancy was a period of unimaginable stress.  I worried daily about its viability. Though I had read about women who had sailed through their pregnancies, glowing every step of the way, I was not one of them. ... I struggled each and every day, desperately, trying to hold onto the little food I was able to eat to keep the baby, growing inside of me, alive! ....  I knew then that that my life was entering into a new phase, more dramatic and life altering than I could ever have imagined. (Giving Birth to a Preemie-2012)

Morning sickness was given new status. ...   It was now an every day, every moment event, with no weekends off!  Did my body have a hidden agenda?  I worried and wondered if it would ever return to normalcy, once I gave birth.  Could I ‘deliver the goods?’   Cravings for certain foods became the new order. ... One day, it was a bag of oranges; another day, a bag of spinach for lunch. Somehow eggs were O.K ... Beef was a no-no like most other meats. ...  (I loved salads anyway.) ...Even looking at pictures of food, especially beef, would stir my senses. ... The sight and aroma of the deli counter, in the grocery store, would now trigger a torrent of unpleasant feelings, making shopping at the supermarket a forbidden destination...  I lived on whole grain cereals, fruits and vegetables- our baby’s link to health, wellness and ultimately, survival. ...   Red River cereal, kasha, cornmeal and oatmeal were prepared in a non-stop daily cooking frenzy, with water added, sometimes milk, for the gruel that would sustain us both. ..(My daily strategy was always to cook more than required so as to ‘restore’ the ‘loss’ soon afterwards before losing all again!..)

From the beginning, 'morning' sickness was an unrelenting tide, a day long assault upon me and the baby I carried. Being proactive was the key. When an ‘episode‘ ended, I would wait a few minutes then eat again. There was always a brief moment when my body seemed to take a break and accepted food for a brief time. I would remain calm and motionless, hoping to outsmart my body in its mission to relieve me of the food my fetus so desperately needed to survive. As time passed, though, things simply got worse. (My husband suffered along with me as we could no longer have meals together and I could no longer cook) 

It was 1978/79 and not much was available then to address the problem of unrelenting morning sickness. My doctor prescribed a drug called, Bendictin.  I worried about the side effects of this unknown drug.  I was in the infancy of my education on drugs, clinical trials, drug efficacy and giving birth. Did the scientific community know enough about this wonder drug? When a story about Bendictin appeared in a major newspaper soon after I started taking it, I was shaken to my core. The pregnancy in that case had not ended well and the child was born physically compromised. ... I stopped taking the drug for one day, hoping, I could live without it. But things simply got worse. I could barely move. My body seemed to rebel against ‘us’ as it tried violently to expel anything I attempted to eat. The drug was resumed once again. Sleep seemed to be my greatest ally.  In a relaxed state, the ‘intruder’ would simply leave 'us' alone to rest.  

An erratic diet of grains and fruit saved my first pregnancy. Our baby’s exposure to Bendictin ended the day he was born - 3 months early. A story had been told about the power of simple foods and positive thinking. In spite of losing significant volumes of food while pregnant, and initially losing weight, I delivered a baby born of ‘strength’ whose 'healthy' three month premature birth weight of 3 pounds two ounces helped him overcome RDS and send him home one month ahead of his original due date. Our son developed into a strong, healthy human being. I thank simple grains for that. 
(Caring for a Preemie 08/2012)