5 bogus claims about childbirth going viral on TikTok, from nipples falling off to your sweat turning blue
Allana Akhtar
- Two OBGYNs said viral videos are spreading misinformation about pregnancy to millions of TikTok users.
- Claims that pregnancy causes blindness from brain swelling and teeth to fall out are entirely false.
Videos that list little-known pregnancy symptoms are racking up tens of millions of views on TikTok, and some of the most-watched ones tell women to prepare for symptoms so bizarre they seem false — and that's because they are, doctors told Insider.
Millions of people have watched TikTok videos about "cons list" to being pregnant and giving birth, which includes warnings of teeth falling out and sweat turning blue. Pregnancy is already a scary subject many people are uninformed about, making it the perfect topic for sensational social media videos to flourish, said Shannon Clark, a double board-certified OBGYN and maternal-fetal medicine specialist.
"The viewers are left to think, 'Well because this video has 2 million views, it must be true,'" Clark told Insider. "Unfortunately, a lot of validation comes from how many likes and views a video gets, so it really doesn't matter whether the content of the video is accurate, unfortunately."
Misinformation about childbirth also detracts from the very real problems about giving birth in the US, said Nicole Calloway Rankins, an OBGYN and host of the popular podcast All About Pregnancy & Birth.
The US has the highest maternal mortality rate compared to other wealthy countries, and Black women are three to four times more likely to die from childbirth than are white women.
"This is a little bit frustrating because it feels like social media gives attention to things for sensational sake, without paying attention to some of the more urgent things like the way people may be mistreated in our system during pregnancy," Rankins told Insider.
Clark and Rankins broke down some of the most-watched — and most untrue — videos about pregnancy claims running rampant on TikTok, while providing science-backed information about what body changes a pregnant person might actually experience.
Babies don't "steal the mother's bones" in utero.
A video with 1.6 million views claims babies "steal" the pregnant person's bones as a fetus — an entirely untrue statement according to Clark and Rankins.
The claim might be a misrepresentation of the fact babies take calcium from the pregnant person to create their own skeleton. Bone mass loss can occur if the pregnant person is not consuming enough calcium, but any loss is restored in the months following delivery, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Rankins said reframing calcium absorption as "stealing bones" is a way to sensationalize a normal aspect of pregnancy.
"This is just a play on words in order to try and make a normal physiologic process dramatic," the doctor said.
Your teeth won't fall out during pregnancy and childbirth.
Contrary to a video with 4.2 million views that states pregnancy causes teeth to rot and fall out, nothing about the process should cause tooth loss, the doctors said.
Tooth sensitivity can occur during pregnancy. A pregnant person's body produces certain hormones that relax the ligaments in the body, Rankins said, so the pelvis can open up and make space for the baby. The same hormones can cause tissue around the teeth to become loose, which might mean your gums are more sensitive and teeth feel looser.
These hormonal changes might also make it more likely that pregnant people with already poor oral health develop gum disease, but any tooth loss in pregnancy is due to improper dental care, Clark said.
Hormonal changes don't turn your sweat blue.
A video claiming pregnancy caused a woman's sweat to turn blue has amassed more than 1.6 million views, but doctors said the condition isn't tied to pregnancy.
"If you're sweating blue, you need to go see a physician to find out why that is," Clark said. "But it's not from pregnancy hormones. There's no evidence that pregnancy hormones are going to change your sweat color for any reason."
A rare condition called chromhidrosis can cause sweat to turn different colors, including blue.
The condition is largely benign and can be caused by ingesting certain food coloring or dyes, or when the skin comes into contact with pigment-producing bacteria. Hormonal changes during pregnancy cannot cause chromhidrosis, Clark said, but they can cause a person to sweat more, particularly in the first trimester.
No, your nipples won't fall off from breastfeeding.
TikTok creator Jasmine Chiswell posted a video in January detailing how her 12-month old baby with eight teeth bit down on her while breastfeeding, causing her nipple to "hang off."
In the video, which has since amassed more than 5 million views, Chiswell said she was warned "this could happen," a false statement according to Rankins.
"I never want to dismiss what someone says happened to them, but I can 1000% confidently say that it is extremely unlikely that your nipples are going to fall off or be detached because of breastfeeding," she said.
Breastfeeding can be painful and might result in cuts if the baby pulls too hard, but Rankins said working with a lactation consultant can improve the baby's latch. A lactation consultant told The Huffington Post there are no case reports in medical literature of a nipple falling off during breastfeeding.
In Rankins' 20-year career, she has not seen significant damage done to a nipple during breastfeeding. Most women breastfeed without experiencing significant problems, she said.
You won't become permanently blind after pregnancy, but you might experience vision changes.
Many pregnant women experience vision changes during pregnancy, but they will not develop permanent blindness — contrary to what a video with 13.1 million views purports. Another video with 1.1 million views said "brain swelling" during pregnancy can lead to vision loss, which does not happen, Rankins said.
Preeclampsia, a rare hypertensive disorder that occurs in the third trimester of pregnancy, can lead to blurry or spotty vision. Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES), which is associated with preeclampsia, is a "very, very" rare condition that might cause temporary blindness, but vision returns to normal within a few weeks after delivery, Rankins said.
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