Worrying myself sick about heat & neural tube defects

[feesh]

I have been googling this for the past 24 hours and it's only caused me to worry more, so I don't know what anyone can say to me really :(

Last week, when I was feeling particularly crap and wasn't capable of leaving the house, I went and laid by the pool (we live on a compound in the Middle East). It is really hot here at the moment, around 40 degrees.

I am about 6 weeks pregnant.

I was there for about an hour and got MUCH hotter than I intended - my kaftan was soaked in sweat and my heart was banging away and I was generally pretty uncomfortable. I was waiting for some annoying kids to bugger off before I could get in the pool, hence waiting in the heat for longer than I should have.

After an hour in the sun, I did go for a lovely, cool, refreshing dip and it was wonderful, and then I went back home.

I am SO worried that this hour in the sun has hurt the baby. I have been reading up on it and I am sure my body temperature must have gone over the magic 102 - it was like being in a sauna.

I also have to walk the dog every morning - I go at around 5.30am when the temperature is around 30, so I don't get too hot, but it's still a bit of a sweaty half-hour and the dog certainly comes home panting.

I will never forgive myself if the baby is found to have a neural tube defect :(

feeesh bless you. Plenty of women in hot countries have healthy babies and do exercise in temps of around 30. I for one did and exercised throughout pregnancy.

It makes sense to avoid very hot baths, saunas, long desert walks etc but walking the dog will probably do more good than harm and just take sensible precautions in the sun (stay hydrated etc).

Well, I'm no medic but it sounds to me that your body was doing a really good job of cooling itself with all the sweating etc. You might have felt extremely hot, but I'm guessing your core temperature, nearer the baby, was probably quite a bit lower than your surface temperature.

As Fraktal says, plenty of babies born in hot countries so try to relax if you can.