[Avodah] Pregnant women's sakana brought on by sense of smell

[hankman]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chana Luntz" <chana at kolsassoon.org.uk>
To: <avodah at lists.aishdas.org>
Cc: <salman at videotron.ca>
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 9:56 AM
Subject: [Avodah] Pregnant women's sakana brought on by sense of smell


> > Any medical types on the list? Is there any syndrome known to
> > modern medicine that sounds like the Mishna on Yoma 82a about
> > a pregnant woman who may eat on Yom Kippur to satisfy a
> > desire brought on by an aroma of food, because she would
> > otherwise be in a sakana if the desire is not satisfied.
>
> I am by no means a medical type, but I have certainly been told that
> fasting in late pregnancy can bring on labor (supposedly the delivery
> rate at frum hospitals goes up around Yom Kippur).
>
CM responds:
So what's your point. The halacha is that pregnant woman do fast on Yom
Kippur, they do not get a pass if everything is running as a normal
problem-free pregnancy.

> And certainly when I was 34 weeks with Yonit, and they needed to do a
> very minor medical procedure, which normally would only have involved,
> at most, the practice nurse at my local doctor's surgery, they insisted
> on hospitalising me for two days, on the grounds that "anything can set
> off labor at this stage" and they therefore wanted me in for observation
> "just in case".   34 weeks, of course today with modern neo-natal units,
> is not very risky, but I imagine at the time of chazal it was, as the
> lungs are generally not fully formed, and a baby born at that time would
> generally need some form of breathing assistance initially.
>
CM responds:
While what you say is without doubt true, it is off point. What does this
have to do with a condition wherein a pregnant woman smells something and as
a result is endangered unless she eats?

R'n CL continues:
> I assume that the Mishna must be talking about middle to late rather
> than early pregnancy, given that a pregnancy is not regarded as
> established until three months (at least for nida purposes).
>
CM responds:
I repeat my previous remarks.

Kol Tuv
Chaim Manaster