Can you change bed/furnitures during pregnancy?

D

Dianeb

Registered User
Hi all..i have a question and I know you may laugh at me because it may sound very silly but I really need help here.......I just want to know if it is okay to change your bed while pregnant? Okay it may sound like a weird question but here is my story :-

Recently due to the high humidity here in HK, my husband and I discovered that the wooden bed we have been sleeping on are being attacked by "mites". They are very little tiny creatures but they move around and they have basically covered the entire wooden bed (its REALLY REALLY gross)!! We immediately called the pest control company who sprayed our flat twice over the past weeks but it seems the mites are very persistent and I could still see traces of them on my bed. The pest control company believes that the major cause is humidity (we havent yet got a dehumidifier) and the bad quality of the wood which encourage the rapid growth of the mites. Because of this, we are now sleeping in the living room and are thinking of throwing the wooden bed away for a new one. However, my husband's family/relatives who are native Chinese, said there are certain "traditions" that pregnant women should follow, otherwise it would be bad for the baby and the pregnant lady may miscarriage, for example, not to move house, not to move furniture's around including not to move your bed, not to nail the wall etc............. the reason they claim is that there's a goddess in charging of pregnancy and baby called "Bed Mother" and doing any of the prohibited acts may cause implications...so basically they are really against my idea of changing my bed even though what they are saying are completely non-scientific!!

What should I do? I really dont want to sleep on that horrible bed anymore but at the same time I dont want to upset my husband's family and the last thing I want is to cause any harm to my beloved baby (btw I am only 4 months pregnant so I still have several months to go). What would you do if you were in my situation?

Diane
 
I completely understand you. Actually I made a similar question (a month ago) about doing home renovation while pregnant. My feedback (from people concerned about this kind of chinese superstitions) is that it is fine as long as you are not present while they take out, and take in the furniture.

As for your husband's relatives/family, they should understand that your are not changing the bed just for fun, but because in the long term, the mite will spread to other wooded furnitures from your home, and breathing from the dust from the damaged wood will be bad for your health.
 
honestly, inlaws or not, i would tell them to take a flying leap! your bed is INFESTED WITH INSECTS! do they believe it is better for you to sleep on a bed infested with instects than to get a new bed? not to mention the fact that if you leave the bed in your house there is a very high probability that they will move onto other furniture, too!!

yikes! THERE IS NO WAY i would live with that, ESPECIALLY when pregnant.

your health and the health of your baby is number 1...smile nicely when they say "no" then do what you want.

(PS> i have chinese in-laws, too. my husband had a BIG talk with them to explain that the baby was as much "canadian" as it was "hong kong chinese" and as such, they had to back off and let me do what made ME comfortable. it seemed to work because i didn't hear too much about it all...at least hubby didn't translae it for me.)
 
You need to change your bed. What if it collapses one day when you are sleeping on it?

The tradition came about cos in the old days, moving houses and renovation involved manual labour and in the process, the mother/baby could be injured. Today, we supervise the move, and can get by with doing very little.

We moved house in my 2nd trimester. Went through the same thing with my parents who were against it. We 'compromised' by me not being in the house when the move happened, i.e. my husband supervised everything, i went to work. You can try the same. As long as you are not 'in the house' when the new bed is delivered, think you are ok.

There are loopholes around superstition too believe it or not :)
 
i am a strong believer in chinese stuffs.. you can call me the really superstitious one..
but when it comes to a situation like that.. i would definitely change the bed.. i mean ,, you are talking about sleeping on a mites infested bed!!!.. change the bed quickly.
 
Thanks so much ladies for your advice!! i actually had a HUGE argument with the relatives/in laws the other day. Basically the feeling I am getting from them is that I would be the one to blame if anything happens to my baby in the future...Like you guys said, I am NOT changing my bed for fun! the bed is actually quite new (less than one year old) and we paid quite a lot for it, but its just unfortunate it is being infested with horrible mites.

The relatives then insisted that we waited until we tried out the pest control services and all types of fumigators. It is now clear that none of these have worked to satisfactory. I feel so stressed now...they made me feel like I am doing something EVIL to my baby if I change my bed............I appreciate they are concerned of me particularly probably because I suffered from some complications earlier in my pregnancy, so everyone around me are now really concerned and are asking me to be extra cautious for my pregnancy....but really with situation like this, I really have no choice...but I will take you ladies' advice, compromise by not being in the house when the move happened....i hope i can convince them without stirring up another argument...
 
diane,

from a man's point of you, where the heck is your husband's involvement in all this??????? it's his inlaws if i understand correct, so tell him to go and sort it out for you.

i don't think you should even have to talk with your husband's inlaws for one single second. or are you saying your husband disagrees with you?

then you would have a whole different size of a problem...
 
Just get it done for your own sake and ignore the in-laws and relatives. You need to step your foot down when your baby and your health is at risk.
 
I know exactly what you are talking about not moving beds, drilling holes, etc. But my in-laws are luckily not as aggressive as yours and my husband usually sorts out all these issues with his parents rather than me.

Well, to be honest what about your believe system? You didn't grow up with Chinese traditions and it is difficult for us to understand their beliefs. And I still don't except all of them and do what I think is right to do.

I mean the infested bed is a serious thing and poses probs more health issues to you and the baby, needless to say all the fumes from the pest controllers. I am sure they are extremely toxic and very bad for you and your baby. Get rid of that thing...and you don't have to be there when the bed is taken out and the new one moved in, that's ok to my understanding of this superstition.
 
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