On being pregnant in China

I'm thinking of beginning a series of posts about this topic.  There is SO much I could write about! 

Sometimes, in a big city like the one we live in, you can trick yourself into thinking that Western and Eastern thinking are becoming more and more similar due to globalization.  Until you start talking about pregnancy.  Boy, are you reminded quickly--yup, still completely different cultures!

In some ways pregnancy is treated like a sickness here.  In part because of the one-child policy, people are super-protective/paranoid about their pregnancies....this is their one shot!  Consequently, pregnant women are often seen sporting these oh-so-stylish anti-radiation aprons (because apparently there is so much loose radiation floating around from computers and cell phones that it could damage the baby).  The best part about these aprons is that oftentimes it's the only way you know that a woman is pregnant--think about how tiny most Asian women are and for most of them here it is their first/only pregnancy so they won't really look very pregnant until the very end! I think sometimes women here just wear them so that people will know they are pregnant and they can score seats on public transport. 

There are also all kinds of recommendations about what you should and should not eat (dates and brown sugar, thumbs up; mutton, not so much).  This is a fascinating read about how women during pregnancy have an imbalance of yin/yang and therefore need to eat more yin foods lest they experience too much internal heating (which can cause symptoms like palpitations and constipation).  For me, I'm just trying to eat whatever makes me not feel like throwing up!

It's been interesting going through the first trimester yucks over on this side of the ocean.  With my first two pregnancies, I had pretty much figured out what things helped me cope with the nausea (with Katie I ate a handful of ginger snaps and drank a ginger ale before I even got out of bed, with Caroline I ate sour Icebreakers like there was no tomorrow).  It's been hard with my stand-bys not being readily available.  But in some ways this pregnancy's been altogether different from the other two (maybe an indication that it's a boy?!)  I've had much stronger cravings for particular foods.  The first few weeks I had strong cravings for random Chinese foods.  For example, one week I pretty much survived on these baby breakfast baozi (which thankfully there was a man with a cart who sold them next to the subway so I could always grab some on my way to class).  The week after that it was you tiao (again, thankful that my baozi man also sold these).  The next week I lived on rice zhou (which is pretty much rice cooked in a ton of water for a long, long time until it turns into gruel-sounds appetizing, right?)  It's standard Chinese breakfast/beverage and I felt pretty 厉害(lihai, which can mean talented) for making it myself. After that, though, my Chinese cravings solidly ended, and my best meal every day for about 2-3 weeks became a 3号套餐，不要咖啡，要惩治 (that’s a #3 meal—sausage egg mcmuffin and hashbrowns, with no coffee, and an orange juice).  Thankfully there's a McDonald's right next to my school.  Survival mode, folks, survival mode. 

More to come in the world of being pregnant in China. If you have any questions you're particularly interested in hearing answered, leave a comment and I'll do my best to find out!