SOME SAY I SHOULDN’T TAKE SOBO WHILE PREGNANT and OTHERS SAY IT OK TO TAKE. Who do I believe now? Should I take sobo pregnancy and breastfeeding? Does it have any effect on breastfeeding protein powder such as Similac?

1. The leaves used to make sobo has the ability to reduce your blood pressure depending on the amount you take.
This can also be relative to everyone. This means sobo may reduce madam A blood pressure but may not really affect madam B.
For some women during pregnancy their blood pressure is low, and undergo a pregnancy scan so in this case taking sobo may make it go low more which can cause dizziness and even fainting.
So if you know you have low blood pressure then be careful on the amount you take.

Some women too have high blood pressure during pregnancy, then this may help them cause it would reduce. However if you are taking any medication to lower your bp like we normally say bp medicine, then please talk to your doctor before you even start taking sobo if not it would go too low. The bp medicine is reducing it and the sobo is also reducing it. This can be very dangerous and fatal.

You can go to the pharmacy and check your bp then ask them if it low or high. Or when you go to antenatal and they check it ask them if it low or high.

2. Also sobo Is a diuretic, that means if you take a lot you are likely to urinate more and this is one way it reduces blood pressure. You would notice that people with high BP are given medications that makes them urinate a lot and this intends helps reduce their blood pressure.
So sobo may be very good for someone with high blood pressure. But please consult your doctor before taking it for blood pressure purposes.

So it means if you are urinating more and you are not drinking more water or fluids, you would be dehydrated which is a no no in pregnancy.
Once again drinking it in moderation is key and also drinking more water to replace the one that was lost through urinating.

3. There are some reports that even say sobo has some effect on cholesterol. It may not decrease the bad cholesterol but it helps the good cholesterol to increase. (We have to types of cholesterol, if the bad one is high, then you are told your cholesterol levels are high and you are given medication)

GINGER

Now to the ginger added to sobo. Ginger has a lot of benefits and one of it benefits may actually be a problem to one who is pregnant especially early pregnancy

1. Ginger is a blood thinner. This means it helps so that your blood doesn’t clot.
You see when you slaughter an animal like Muslims do during eid, and you leave the blood for some time the blood becomes very thick right.
Or for females when you having your menses, some of the blood would have clots, and the color is usually deeper or darker than the blood that is flowing freely.
When you take ginger, one of it benefit is that it stops that clot.
This is why when you have menstrual pain you are told to take ginger tea, so that all the blood would melt and come out freely then your body won’t have to do any hard work to bring the clot out hence reducing the pain.
So when you take sobo with ginger during pregnancy it means that you are also going to have your blood becoming thin.
And this raises your chances of bleeding.
This is why when you are going to do surgery or operation you are told not to take ginger because you would bleed more.

2. Also ginger increases heat, one reason when someone has cold you are told to give them ginger tea. The heat would make the virus causing the cold to feel uncomfortable as the cold virus loves cold.
So with ginger you have two risk, increasing your chances of bleeding and increase in body heat.

CLOVES OR KANANFARI

Just like ginger cloves also has enough benefits to the extent of benefiting the baby by aiding in the baby brain development .
But the most important point here is moderation. Even with all these benefits, cloves can as well stimulate the womb if taking in large quantities and this would cause the womb to contract which may be fatal.
So please please please be very careful when using anything that has cloves during pregnancy .

SUGAR

Sugar. This is one essential ingredient in making sobo drink.
Taking too much sugar would affect your blood sugar. And as your blood sugar increases, you are at risk of gestational diabetes. The type of diabetes that happens in pregnancy and this can also make your baby very big.
If your baby is very big, you won’t be advised to give birth yourself as this can be very risky for both you and the baby.
So that increases your chances of having a CS.
This is why health professionals warn against taking excessive sugary drinks during pregnancy.
These are the key ingredients when making sobo even though others add other things.

My TAKE.
1. If you want to take sobo during pregnancy, then please make sure you prepare it yourself or someone you know and trust prepares it that way you are sure what was used and it quantity.

2. Please make sure the sobo is prepared with very few ingredients like those we talked about. The more ingredient you add the more you put yourself at risk. And if there is a problem you may not be able to know which ingredient caused it. When health professionals know what causing a problem they may have an anti dote to help you quickly. Eg. when you add too much ginger and then you start to bleed, and you tell them I took sobo but had a lot of ginger. They would know that the ginger is a blood thinner so that where the problem is coming from. Then they would give you an antidote that would make your blood to clot so the bleeding can stop. So the less ingredients you add when you pregnant the better

3. Also very very important point. What ever you add to your sobo it shouldn’t be much . Something small . Every single ingredient should be added in moderation from the ginger to the cloves to the sugar.

4. The sobo drink you have prepared should also be drank in moderation. Even though all the ingredients you added were small, the more you take the sobo drink the more it accumulates in your body

5. If you have been pregnant before and you took sobo without having any problems it doesn’t mean you may have the same fate. Every pregnancy is different and should be treated as such. The moment you realize you are pregnant and craving for sobo, prepare it yourself or by someone with few ingredient in moderate to small quantities. Then drink a very small amount and observe how your body reacts to it. If you don’t see any problems, then wait a day or two before drinking again so that it doesn’t become plenty in your body to cause harm.

6. If you took sobo and lost your pregnancy before, that goes without saying you have to be extremely careful. If possible stay away from sobo for the first trimester completely. The chances of having a miscarriage in a first trimester is higher than in other trimesters.

7. In as much as there is so much benefit in taking sobo, there are also risks so please please be moderate to keep you and your little one safe.

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL PREGNANCY JOURNEY ALL THE BEST.
By Rahma Fufana Medical V.A