the do's and donts of pregnancy are driving me nuts! too many opinions!

[looby222]

This is a very annoying subject for me, dont eat tuna.. Runny eggs.. Coffee... Soft cheese.. Blah blah and smoking!!

Back in the early days im sure there wasnt this much hype about everything?! And people giving there pennies worth is irritating me.
At work i was seriously wanting brie on crackers .about to eat it and get a huge lecture put me rightoff.

Any pushy partners doing the same?

I am personally avoiding runny eggs and non pasteruised cheese (which sadly includes brie) as when you google there is plenty of info on why not to eat it.

Why can't you eat tuna though? I have been, allbeit probably only once or twice!

Some of the advice is sound and I've been avoiding certain things (high mercury fish, alcohol, pate and unpasteurized cheese) but other things I'm taking with a pinch of salt. I'm very lucky in that no one has lectured me on anything or told me not to eat it.

You can eat tuna but only in certain amounts so don't feel as though you can't eat them! Runny eggs are fine if you have a Lion stamped egg (and IMO aren't in your first trimester) and coffee is absolutely fine as long as you limit the amount of caffeine in it. No one's saying NEVER to eat/drink a lot of these things...

I think this will always be a hard one! You need to think seriously about what the risks area (i.e why they've recommended you don't do XYZ) and work out what you are comfortable with. I am 9wks and have had 2 glasses of champagne since finding out I was pg. I am comfortable with that choice, others wouldn't be.

I am happy to (where possible) avoid unpasturised cheese, uncooked/ rare meats, runny eggs etc- to be fair my sickness has put me off a number of things already! chances are you might slipup anyway without realising it, so you just need to put things into context! Remember there are somehow hoards of women who have no idea they're pregnant for ages, so eat and drink all kinds of things they shouldn't.

I think smoking and drugs are the two absolute MUST GIVE UP items, with alcohol trailing behind in a "really should ...but..." kind of way. (I have justified it by thinking about the approach to drinking in pregnancy on the continent!).

Obviously the best answer is to avoid anything that may create a risk... but that's highly unlikely and chances are you'll be miserable. My friends (that know) all have a great attitude towards it all so luckily i'm yet to be told off for anything, and my partner is also trying to let me make my own decisions!

I've never smoked, DDad chain smoked, i breathed in enough second hand smoke to last a life tume.

I never succeeded at caffeine, I cut down a bit, but way over today's rules.
Don't like soft cheese.
I really missed pâté
Ate the odd plate of less than cooked scrambled eggs, I hate them done to regulation.

I can take or leave booze,and think I had the odd bit at Christmas, but not much.

The one very very naughty thing I did both times was drink in pasteurised milk on holiday. If you go to the Isles of Scilly it's that it UHT and we were woken by the cows being milked.

Unpasturised

I completely sympathise. It's hard, because I'd rather have more information than less, but I like to know the reasons why something is advised.

I think it helps to look at the source of the advice and to understand the consequences of doing/not doing:
e.g. if it's someone giving you their advice, that's an opinion, based on what exactly? In my experience, it was very often not even based on what they did! I was given loads of well-meaning advice and got so stressed out that I started asking - is this something you did? Or something you wish you had done?

I personally like to know WHY and then make my own decisions. E.g. why shouldn't I eat soft cheese?
The NHS Choices website is a good one for this e.g.
www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/why-cant-I-eat-soft-cheeses-during-pregnancy.aspx?CategoryID=54&SubCategoryID=216

The guidelines for caffeine are a massive "no more than 300mg a day", a coffee is about 70mg, a redbull is around (just under) 80mg.

You can buy pasteurised brie though and you can eat moderate amounts of tuna.

I think the guidelines are no more than 3 cans a week for tuna, due to the potentially high mercury content. Eggs with the lion stamp are fine and I've been eating runny eggs all throughout my pregnancy as it's been a major craving! I also used to be a total red bull junkie, drinking between 1-4 cans a day (I know I know) as well as cups of tea. I haven't cut these out of my diet completely but do keep within the 300mg a day guideline and only really have red bull about once a week. I don't like fancy cheeses or pate so I'm lucky there.

Everyones perspectives are different though, I know they say it's safe to drink 1-2 units a week but I have completely abstained from alcohol. Personally, the worry and guilt I would feel would ruin the enjoyment of drinking.. I was a typical cheap wine guzzling university student when I fell pregnant too and I do miss it. I do however have a bottle of champagne packed in my hospital bag

The same with smoking, my DM smoked all throughout her pregnancy with me and I'm fine. However the second I got my BFP the mere thought of smoking filled me with horror and guilt, so I obviously haven't!

I agree with freelance, there are some hysterical people out there that will tell you you can't drink orange juice, eat ice cream, lay on any side other than your left (or right, I can't remember now!), put your arms above your head, eat salad etc. It's all about being well informed and making your own decisions based on how YOU feel and the evidence you have seen.

My DP hasn't pushed me into doing/ not doing anything. The poor bloke is walking on eggshells after I bawled my eyes out when he bought the wrong ice lollies

I adopted one "Do": DO use common sense, and one "Don't": DON'T listen to anyone except the experts (I.e the NHS, and even they get it wrong from time to time...remember when peanuts were a no-no?)

I've not avoided anything, because from what I can glean from the info, it's too much of anything that's the problem, not specific things themselves. As I would only eat pate, eggs, tuna, brie etc once in a while, I was happy that as long as they were fresh, this was no risk to take.

I have avoided alcohol completely though, but only because I've never been a one drink kind of gal. I'd have no problem having just one if I really fancied it.

OP, think of it as preparation for when baby is here. The advice...and judgement continues. Funny how some people feel entitled to volunteer opinions. OK - if I've asked for advice, that's one thing, but the amount of unsolicited advice is just....well, overwhelming at times.

My approach to risk taking: read the lists on NHS, avoided all American baby websites , gave up the easy stuff, paid particular attention to advice on toxoplasmosis as I'm negative, made informed decisions about eating pate, cheeses, homegrown runny eggs and fish. Have chosen to give up charcuterie, sliced meats, raw milk, alcohol and coffee which hurt a bit. Oh, and raw oysters at Xmas - that hurt a lot!

A lot of the stuff to avoid is not stuff I eat lots of anyway (more swordfish anyone?). Outside MN world, most of the pg wpmen in my family eat what they like - it's up to them. I think one can easily get carried away with the paranoia tbh.

Second pg is much easier though as lots of the reading/decisions you will have already made for the first.

I've eaten pasteurised brie since around wk 16, pitta bread and brie is one of the only things i can stomach (severe nausea wk 6-35 so far)

Ladies thank you so much for the responses!

Ive not drank since i found out i was pregnant, as for smoking i was a heavy smoker i was told to cut down a chunk if too a stop thats fab, im barely on 6 a day but i think im going off it as im barely smoking.
Tuna im only having one to two cans a weel i love all fish/ shellfish and im craving ot more like you wouldnt believe but not having hense being told what to watch out for. The only person really whos beem fantastic is my mum (apart from you ladies) she says i should eat what i like in moderation or very small portions.

Its just a huge thing that i struggle with every day.
Maybe me.. But i love all the things i cant 'have'! Apart from alcohol which i cant even bare to smell! It knocks me sicl straight off

3 times tonight at work I got 'should you be doin that?' I was stocking a fridge not swinging from the roof by my vagina!!! I didn't say that, I just said 'probably not' and they buggered off. But Ffs! Lifting a few bottles is not going to overwork me when I'm sat on the floor!!

Once DC arrived, I'll be having the biggest tub of pâté, Brie and crusty bread known possible! Also gave up smoking as soon as we got out BFP and don't plan on starting again!! But I shall be having a few drinks but prob not straight away as intend to breast feed. Something's I think should definitely be stopped, like the above food but other advice can e taken with a pinch of salt! ( not too much though, salts bad for the baby ha!)

Get used to it....the do's and dont's will continue once you have had your baby.

One thing to point out is caffiene also passes through to your milk if you plan to breastfeed once baby arrives. So if your intake is higher than 200mg it is probably a good idea to try and cut down a bit before sleepless nights etc.

How much tuna is too much tuna?? I'm having a tuna sandwich pretty much every other day :s

DeathMetal I will agree with that, I had a really OTT Doctor after having DS who actually took a can of redbull from my hand (normal size, sugar free) and told me not to drink it.

I have chronic fatigue due to a genetic condition and I need caffiene, without it I literally cannot function. I had also just had a really traumatic birth and was anemic. I'm still angry at her for that.

I think the limit is 2 cans of tuna a week, the small cans.

You can eat 4 cans of tuna a week according to the NHS