Letter: The effect of fasting on pregnancy

This is a comment to Khairil Azhar’s article entitled “Common sense and religiosity” published on Sept. 9, page 6.

I think I need to clarify about the effect of fasting on pregnancy. I was 7 months pregnant and practiced fasting during last Ramadhan for 22 days. I did that not only for emotional reasons but also for a rational one.

Fasting does not mean abusing fetuses. In fact, Ramadhan fasting is only moving breakfast and dinner to different times. It has no significant change on a woman’s physiology (please visit http://www.jyi.org/research/re.php?id=3499).

Pregnancy is different for every woman. Every woman has a unique physiology. Some women can fast and some cannot do it at all. Of course, the latter is allowed in Islam. If the reason is that there is a baby inside their womb, those women can pay fidyah.

Dyna
Jakarta