"I am going to the sea to fetch a new baby, but the journey is long and dangerous and I may not return."

-Tanzanian saying

"Always exercise your clinical eye. Some patients may withhold information. If you have a good clinical eye, [you will not miss] possible risks in pregnancy."

-Dr. Esmeraldo Ilem, training officer

Department of OB-Gynecology, Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital

"Before some patients come to you for consult they are very serious already, and about to deliver."

-Dr. Virgilio Castro, head

High-risk Unit, Department of OB-Gynecology,

University of Santo Tomas Hospital

"Scientifically there is no basis in the belief that your child will reflect the food you craved during pregnancy. Although I don't really know how strong the mental aspect of a woman can affect [the pregnancy], they say that that the emotions a woman goes through during pregnancy somehow are transferred to her baby."

-Dr. Nida Gloria Villanueva, obstetrician/gynecologist

Manila Sanitarium and Hospital and School of Medical Arts

"The effect of pregnancy on a particular person is different [from another]. Even with the same person, your pregnancy now might be totally different from you pregnancy in the future [or] in the past. It doesn't follow that [the pregnancies] will follow a certain pattern."

-Dr. Teresita Sanchez, obstetrician-gynecologist, lawyer, and forensic specialist

Makati Medical Center

"Craving for food is also a way of sharing the experience of pregnancy with the other members of the family, the community, the kin groups."

-Prof. Maria Luisa Lucas Fernan, anthropologist

Ugnayang Pang-Aghamtao/Anthropological Association of the Philippines