My husband’s patience was being sorely tried, & so I mentioned this ‘minor’ problem to the doctor at my next antenatal appointment, when by chance I saw the kindly registrar rather than my usual SHO whom I found rather intimidating & prefectish.
How much milk do you drink?
At least two pints a day, I said proudly, expecting real Brownie points for once, only to see him slowly shaking his head.
Well stop – no more than 1 pint a day, and that includes everything – cereal, drinks, rice pudding …
It worked for me – who cares whether or not it was simply the power of persuasion.
In the Good Old Days the British Medical Journal used to carry an occasional column, under the general title Old Wives’ Tales, which considered whether there might be any scientific basis for the kind of traditional remedies on which so many of their patients might have relied, even for some years after the NHS was there to offer something supposedly more reliable. One day in the later 1970s it dealt with precisely this topic of milk & pregnancy cramps. As I remember it ummed & aahed rather a lot about calcium & ended up more or less firmly on the fence
The modern on-line NHS Choices is even less helpful: “leg cramps that occur during pregnancy should pass once the baby is born.”
Babycentre reports that “Your leg cramps may be happening because you have a shortage of nutrients and salts, such as calcium or magnesium, circulating in your blood”, but is not really convinced.
The cure that worked for me is unlikely to be of any help to any currently expectant mum - does anybody at all dare to consume even one, never mond two or more, pints of (full fat) milk these days?
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