Both of these beliefs operate at the normative level. Insofar as my own field experience is concerned, food intake in pregnancy was not found to be affected by either of these beliefs. Rather, the limited choice and inadequate food availability had a greater impact. In countries where an association between fear of a difficult delivery of a large baby and restriction on food intake is reported, careful examination is needed to determine whether actual food restriction takes place because of such belief or whether it operates only at the normative level, as in Bangladesh. While both pregnancy and the puerperium are recognized as changing physiological states in a woman, it is mainly in the puerperium that a woman is expected to follow a broad set of dietary rules.
Dietary rules consist of both prescriptions and proscriptions.
The foods to be avoided include all animal food, leafy greens, and pulses. While in the early puerperium food restrictions are emphasized, from the sixth day after delivery foods believed to give strength and produce blood, such as ghee and koi, magur and shing fish, are recommended. The study of food beliefs shows a great uniformity, but response to the same beliefs varies with differences in income. The logic behind this is that if they cannot eat recommended foods, they can at least observe the food restrictions. The mothers in Bangladesh, like their counterparts in India and Pakistan, have been brought up on the belief that breast-milk is the ideal food for the baby.