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A popular labor prep “recommendation” for pregnant women
In case you haven’t heard, there is a very popular recommendation out there for pregnant women to consume 75g of dates a day for the last month of their pregnancy – from 36 weeks onward.
Supposedly, and according to a few regularly cited studies, the dates helped women to have shorter labors with less complications.
When it comes to citing studies as evidence, we must also consider the many factors influencing studies and their results – and that these are often impossible to properly control. Ultimately, there are many factors influencing the outcomes of birth – from the setting, to the team, to the mother’s own mindset around birth and trust in her body. This being said, while eating dates may have had some positive influence on womens’ labors, we must consider other factors at play, as well as the additional impact that the consumption of 75g of dates daily may have on the microbiome of a pregnant woman and her gestating baby.
How many grams of sugar does the recommended daily serving of dates contain?
Did you know that 75g of dates contains about 50g of sugar? This is the equivalent to approximately 1/4c of sugar. If you are a pregnant woman adding this amount of dates to your daily diet, it is important to consider the amount of sugar you are consuming in dates alone!
Many will argue that the fructose in dates, eaten as a whole fruit, cannot be compared to normal table sugar. It’s true, dates are a very good source of many vitamins and minerals, including vitamin K which is important for pregnant women to consume via food sources. However, all of the same vitamins and nutrients can also be easily consumed in an herbal tea infusion – without the excessive sugar. While I do somewhat agree, and fully understand that dates are very high in fiber which can help to counterbalance and help the body regulate the blood sugar more efficiently than say, eating a handful of M&Ms, it is important to note that 50g of sugar is still an excessive amount to be consuming daily while pregnant. Why exactly is this?
How sugar negatively impacts your gut microbiome
Within your gut microbiome, there resides a fungal strain known as candida (there are many different candida strains; the most commonly talked about is candida albicans). It is perfectly normal for candida to reside in your gut, as well as it is normal for different parasites, and a variety of bacteria, to reside in your gut. This is why I always let women know, parasites are not necessarily bad, and they do serve a purpose in your gut. However, under certain circumstances, certain fungal strains, bacteria, or parasites can get out of balance in your gut and cause disruptive health imbalances.
Candida is one fungal strain which can very easily get out of balance within your gut. In particular, candida feeds on two things: sugar and heavy metals. Candida can become pathologic and even knows how to cleverly use the aforementioned to create a biofilm to hide itself from your immune system, making it challenging to get back into balance. Every single human on the planet is exposed to heavy metals on a daily basis, no matter how hard they try to live a non-toxic lifestyle (read my blog on this topic here). This is why I always recommend heavy metal detoxing to women in their childbearing years – and no matter what stage of childbearing you are in, it can be done safely using with a high quality Fulvic Acid Mineral Powder, and other methods.
This is exactly why it is so important to control the amount of sugar you are consuming while pregnant. While natural sugars are necessary for the body in small amounts, it is not necessary to consume excessive amounts of sugar while pregnant, and this can in fact cause many health imbalances for not only you, but your gestating baby. When you are pregnant, your body is under far more stress than it typically would be when not pregnant, and as such, you are much more susceptible to your gut microbiome becoming imbalanced. For example, many pregnant women experience mild or recurring/persistent yeast infections during pregnancy. This is just one example of how candida overgrowth can present in pregnant women.
If you can limit your exposure to both sugar and heavy metals, you will be far less likely to experience what is known as candida overgrowth during your pregnancy. The best thing to do is to detox your body in preparation for pregnancy! Even if you have not done that, there are still measures you can take to safely detox while pregnant or breastfeeding, if necessary. Book a Personalized Detox Protocol session with me if you are seeking support in this arena.
Your baby’s microbiome is imprinted from your microbiome while growing in your womb
When you are pregnant, your entire microbiome (not just your gut microbiome, but the microbiome of your entire being – all encompassing, including the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual) will be the foundation upon which your baby growing in your womb will imprint their own microbiome of their entire being.
It is important to be aware of this, and this is exactly why many women choose to detox their physical body, work on healing traumas, and work to protect their mental, emotional and spiritual state before and during their pregnancies. Even if they are not consciously aware of the mechanism at play (your baby’s microbiome imprinting from your own microbiome), on some subconscious level they are aware of this and will take steps to cleanse, heal, and protect their microbiome prior to and during their pregnancy.
Babies can be born with candida overgrowth
If a pregnant woman has candida overgrowth and is consuming excessive amounts of sugar during pregnancy (really any sugar at all aside from a serving or two of fresh fruit daily – and avoiding bananas, one of the highest sugar fruit and highly genetically modified from ancient bananas), this candida overgrowth can absolutely be passed down to your child in your womb.
My own daughter, completely unvaccinated and untouched by pharmaceuticals, born peacefully and trauma-free into water in our home, was born with multiple yeast-related health imbalances. She had persistent cradle cap right from birth, as well as very infrequent bowel movements – sometimes more than two weeks in between. Once she was a few months old, she began getting very red and inflamed, painful yeast diaper rashes. When we began experimenting with feeding her solids around 6 months of age (with avocado and regrettably, bananas), she began developing recurring colds with a lot of sinus mucus, as well as she began developing very itchy, persistent skin rashes. These skin rashes were not just any skin rashes, but they had a fungal appearance – one which reminded me of ringworm. THIS was the moment when I finally put all of the evidence together and realized she was suffering with candida overgrowth. I will share more on this experience in another blog post at a later date.
I share my personal experience with this to illustrate how the candida overgrowth I had in my own gut microbiome indeed imprinted on my daughter’s gut microbiome as she gestated in my womb. I further proved this theory when I applied my decade of holistic health and herbalism knowledge to safely and successfully candida cleanse while breastfeeding her – which healed her candida-related issues, as well as my own.
The cervix does not need “ripening”
Another important point I would like to make when it comes to the “dates for labor prep” recommendation is that eating dates is not necessary in order to prepare your body for labor.
Your body was brilliantly and intricately designed exactly for growing life and giving birth to it. Your body already knows what to do. The cervix does not need to be “ripened,” it is not a fruit to be picked off a tree and eaten – it is an integral part of an intricate system designed to give birth, without interference or assistance. I’m not sure who came up with this phrase: “ripening of the cervix,” but I quite despise it.
Take a moment to check in with yourself and how this idea resonates with you… do you believe your cervix needs help knowing how to soften and open to allow your baby to birth through you?
An indication that you have some mental, emotional, or spirtual labor prep to do VS. physical
If you still believe that dates may be necessary in order to prepare your body for labor, I believe that this is an indication that you need to do some mental, emotional, or spiritual work in order to prepare for giving birth versus physical preparation. Do you doubt your body’s ability to give birth?
Whether you’d like to believe it or not, the mind and body are intrinsically connected, and this connection cannot be severed. Your beliefs and conditioning around not only birth, but your body and it’s capabilities, have a huge influence on how your birth will unfold.
The best labor prep you can do is to begin to slow down, tune in to your body and your baby in your womb, talk to them and listen to what they communicate to you – whether you are able to consciously perceive that communication yet or not, keep practicing this. Begin to trust in your body and all of the miraculous things it is capable of doing. After all, you are bearing and growing life within your womb – what a sacred honor! – and you are destined to give birth, however it may unfold.
Disclaimer: I don’t hate dates
To be clear, I am not anti-date. In fact, I myself love dates. I do consider them one of nature’s multivitamins and I think they are one of the most delicious fruits around. By no means am I trying to vilify dates, nor am I saying pregnant women should never eat dates.
However, I too, fell for the “dates for labor prep” scam and sometimes even forced myself to eat the dates when I wasn’t even feeling like it and my body was clearly telling me “no” – and I now know I was not honoring my body’s communication with me. Regardless, the “recommendation” to eat 75g of dates a day from 36 weeks onward definitely felt like a guilty pleasure indulgence, under the guise of “labor prep” – can you relate??
If you want to eat dates while pregnant, by all means – go ahead! If you suspect that you have candida overgrowth issues, perhaps consider avoiding dates and other foods high in sugar. It is recommended to consume higher-sugar items like dates after consuming protein and fat in order to prevent blood sugar spikes, if you are going to consume dates. Note: a diet higher in protein/fat while pregnant may contribute to decreased sugar cravings – and is recommended for pregnant women.
My concluding thoughts:
Maybe we shouldn’t just blindly follow recommendations without tuning in to our bodies?
Maybe we should dig a little deeper and consider addressing our fears, conscious or unconscious beliefs around birth, conditioning around birth, and belief in our body’s capabilities in an effort to prepare for labor?
Maybe we should shut out all of the outside noise and tune in to our own inner guidance?
Your body knows how to give birth.
Trust in it’s divine, innate, brilliant intelligence.
Trust in your Self – this inner work is the best labor prep you could ever do!
