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Twenty-three things you will be told during pregnancy in India, and what the evidence actually says about each one.
Reviewed by Dr. Grishma Ranjangaonkar, MBBS, DGO, ICOG Fellowship in Gynecological Endoscopy · Eva WomanCare Clinic, Vashi
Bad pregnancy advice is rarely malicious. It is usually an old rule that outlived its reason, repeated by someone who cares about you. The problem is that it makes women anxious about things that do not matter and relaxed about things that do. Here is what stands up and what does not.
Almost every pregnant woman in India is handed advice she did not ask for, usually with total confidence and no source. Some of it is harmless. Some of it makes women anxious about things that do not matter, and relaxed about things that do. This guide takes the twenty-three claims we hear most often at the clinic and sets each one against what the evidence actually shows.
Pregnancy myths survive for three reasons, and they are worth understanding before you read the list. First, most of them are unfalsifiable in a single case: if you avoid papaya and have a healthy baby, the advice looks like it worked. Second, they are usually passed on by people who love you, which makes them hard to question. Third, a lot of them are old rules with a real origin that no longer applies. Advice against certain foods made sense when refrigeration and food hygiene were unreliable. The rule outlived the reason.
The test we would suggest is simple. Ask what would have to be true for the claim to work, and whether anyone has actually checked. Most of what follows falls apart at that first question.
Myth
“You cannot get pregnant during your period”
What is actually true
You can, and it is not rare. Sperm survive up to five days in the reproductive tract, so intercourse late in a period can still meet an egg released a few days later. This matters most for women with short cycles, where ovulation can arrive as early as day 9 or 10. If you are tracking, our ovulation calculator shows where your fertile window actually falls for your cycle length.
Myth
“If it has not happened in three or four months, something is wrong”
What is actually true
Around eight in ten couples having regular unprotected sex conceive within a year, and most of the rest within two. The usual point to start investigating is twelve months of trying, or six months if you are over 35, or straight away if periods are absent or very irregular. Three months of trying is not a diagnosis.
Myth
“Irregular periods mean you cannot conceive”
What is actually true
Irregular cycles usually mean ovulation is unpredictable, not absent. Many women with PCOS conceive naturally, and many more with straightforward treatment to trigger ovulation. What irregular cycles do make harder is timing, which is exactly why they are worth investigating rather than waiting out. Our PCOS assessment is a reasonable first look at whether your symptom pattern fits.
Myth
“Lying with your legs up after sex improves the chances”
What is actually true
Sperm reach the fallopian tubes within minutes, propelled by their own movement and by uterine contractions, not by gravity. Studies comparing immediate mobilisation with lying down afterwards find no meaningful difference in conception rates. Do it if it is comfortable. Do not do it because you think it decides the outcome.
Myth
“You have to eat for two”
What is actually true
You have to eat for one and a bit. Indian dietary recommendations add roughly 350 extra calories a day from the second trimester, which is about one substantial snack, not a second dinner. What genuinely doubles is your requirement for iron, folate, calcium and protein, so the quality of what you eat matters far more than the volume. Excess weight gain raises the risk of gestational diabetes and of a large baby, both of which complicate delivery. Our BMI calculator uses the Indian cut-offs, which are lower than the international ones for good reason.
Myth
“Papaya and pineapple cause miscarriage”
What is actually true
This is the single most common food fear we hear, and it deserves a careful answer rather than a flat dismissal. The concern comes from unripe papaya, whose latex contains enzymes that have caused uterine contractions in animal studies at high doses. Ripe papaya contains very little of it, and normal culinary amounts of either fruit have never been shown to cause miscarriage in humans. Pineapple has even less behind it. Most miscarriages in the first trimester are caused by chromosomal problems in the embryo, present from conception and unrelated to anything the mother ate.
Myth
“Ghee in the last month makes delivery easier”
What is actually true
There is no mechanism for this and no evidence behind it. Ghee does not soften the birth canal or lubricate anything relevant. What it reliably does is add a large number of calories at the stage of pregnancy when weight gain is fastest and gestational diabetes is being monitored. Eat it if you enjoy it, in the amounts you normally would.
Myth
“Saffron, milk or coconut water will make the baby fair”
What is actually true
Skin colour is set by genetics, not by diet. Saffron milk is a pleasant drink and coconut water is a good way to stay hydrated. Neither changes your baby appearance. The belief is worth naming honestly because it carries an ugly implication that some babies need improving.
Myth
“Raising your arms above your head wraps the cord around the baby neck”
What is actually true
The umbilical cord is looped around the neck in roughly one in five births, and it has nothing to do with your arms. It happens because the baby moves and the cord is long. In the overwhelming majority of cases it is spotted at delivery, slipped off, and never mentioned again. Reaching for something on a high shelf does not cause it.
Myth
“Sex during pregnancy will harm the baby”
What is actually true
In an uncomplicated pregnancy it is safe throughout. The baby sits behind the cervix, cushioned by fluid and membranes. Your doctor will tell you to avoid it in specific situations, such as placenta praevia, unexplained bleeding, a history of preterm labour, or if your waters have broken. Absent one of those, the usual limit is comfort.
Myth
“You should rest as much as possible and avoid exercise”
What is actually true
Current guidance for an uncomplicated pregnancy is around 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, which usually means walking, swimming or prenatal yoga. Active pregnancies are associated with less gestational diabetes, better sleep, easier weight control and less back pain. What to avoid is contact sport, anything with a fall risk, scuba diving, and lying flat on your back for long stretches after about 16 weeks.
Myth
“Travelling or flying is dangerous”
What is actually true
Most airlines carry pregnant passengers up to about 36 weeks for a single pregnancy, and their own rules are usually stricter than the medical picture requires. The genuine considerations are clot risk on long flights, which is managed by moving, hydrating and compression stockings, and how far you will be from care if something starts. The second trimester is generally the most comfortable window to travel in.
Myth
“The shape of your bump tells you the sex”
What is actually true
Bump shape is determined by your build, your abdominal muscle tone, whether this is a first pregnancy, how the baby happens to be lying that day, and the position of the placenta. It carries no information about sex. Carrying high or low, wide or neat, all sit inside normal.
Myth
“Heartburn, cravings, or the fetal heart rate reveal the sex”
What is actually true
Heartburn is caused by the same hormonal relaxation of the valve at the top of the stomach in every pregnancy. Cravings are near universal and vary week to week. Fetal heart rate does vary between 110 and 160 beats a minute, but it varies with activity and gestation, not sex, and studies looking for a difference have found none.
Myth
“A small bump means a small baby”
What is actually true
Fundal height, the tape measurement from your pubic bone to the top of the uterus, is a crude screening tool and nothing more. It is thrown off by your height and build, fluid volume, the position of the baby and the placenta. It is useful only as a prompt: if it measures well outside the expected range for your dates, the response is a growth scan, which measures the baby directly.
Myth
“A caesarean means you can never have a normal delivery”
What is actually true
Many women go on to have a vaginal birth after caesarean, usually written as VBAC, and where it is suitable the success rate is high. What decides it is the reason for the first caesarean, the type of scar on the uterus, how many caesareans you have had, the gap since the last one, the size and position of this baby, and whether labour starts on its own. Some of those rule VBAC out. None of them is answered by the word caesarean alone, which is why it is a conversation and not a verdict.
Myth
“The due date is a deadline”
What is actually true
Only about one baby in twenty arrives on the estimated date. Anything from 37 to 42 completed weeks is term, and the estimate itself carries error unless it was set by an early scan. What the date is genuinely useful for is timing tests and judging growth, not predicting the day. Our due date calculator shows the range around your date as well as the date itself.
Myth
“Labour always starts with your waters breaking”
What is actually true
It starts that way in roughly one pregnancy in ten. Far more often labour begins with contractions that gradually become longer, stronger and closer together, and the membranes rupture later, sometimes only in the final stage. If your waters do break first, note the time and the colour of the fluid and call the clinic, because both matter.
Myth
“Being induced always ends in a caesarean”
What is actually true
It does not. Induction does raise the chance of needing help with the delivery compared with spontaneous labour, and that is a fair thing to weigh up. But most induced labours end in a vaginal birth, and induction is usually offered because continuing the pregnancy carries a clearer risk than starting labour does.
Myth
“You will know for certain when real labour starts”
What is actually true
Many women cannot tell, and being sent home from the hospital in early labour is extremely common rather than a failure. The practical difference is that false labour contractions are irregular, do not get longer or stronger, often ease with rest or a change of position, and are felt mostly at the front. Real ones become regular, intensify, and carry on whatever you do.
Myth
“Breastfeeding is reliable contraception”
What is actually true
There is a real effect behind this one, which is why it persists. Exclusive breastfeeding suppresses ovulation, but only while three conditions all hold: the baby is under six months, is exclusively breastfed day and night, and your periods have not returned. Break any one of those and fertility can return without warning, and it returns before your first period, so you will not get notice. It is not a method to rely on unless you have discussed it deliberately.
Myth
“You must not bathe or wash your hair for forty days”
What is actually true
There is no medical basis for this, and in a hot climate it works against you. Keeping clean matters more than usual after birth, particularly around a caesarean wound or stitches. Warm water is fine. What is worth avoiding is soaking in a bath or a pool until any bleeding has stopped and wounds have healed, which is usually a few weeks.
Myth
“If the milk has not come in on day one, breastfeeding has failed”
What is actually true
What your body makes in the first two or three days is colostrum, a small volume of dense, antibody-rich feed which is exactly what a newborn stomach is built for. Mature milk usually arrives between day three and day five, and often later after a caesarean. Frequent feeding in those first days is what brings it in. This is the single most common reason formula gets started unnecessarily.
You will be handed new advice every week of this pregnancy, and no list can cover all of it. Four questions handle most of what arrives.
Fetal weight figures are from the WHO Fetal Growth Charts (Kiserud et al., PLOS Medicine 2017, CC BY 4.0). Calorie figures follow Indian dietary recommendations for pregnancy. Nothing on this page is a substitute for advice from your own doctor.
Find the fertile window for your own cycle length rather than a textbook 28 days.
Your due date and the realistic range around it, from five different starting points.
Weeks 1 to 12, week by week, with what is forming and what is normal.
Every scan and blood test across the forty weeks, and what each one is looking for.
How much extra to eat, the nutrients that matter, and why tea timing decides your iron levels.
Bring it to an appointment rather than carrying it. Dr. Grishma Ranjangaonkar has been answering these questions in Vashi for over fifteen years, and most of them take a minute to settle properly once someone knows your history.
