Can i Harm my unborn child

[Molly33]

Im 16 weeks on sunday can i do harm to my unborn child by stretching when cleaning? if so would i know about it? Ive been needing to clean today but to an excessive amount couldnt stop. ive just sat down now and realized ive been stretching, bending without thinking and now im worried i might have harmed the baby. :(

nope, a lot of women do yoga in pregnancy, a lot of women go through a frantic cleaning phase and (if you're an idiot like me) some women are still climbing up and down ladders at 7 months stripping wallpaper and renovating houses. Unless you've been told to rest up by your midwife, you and your baby will be fine, they are deliberately very well cushioned.

Oh thank god! People around me keep saying dont stretch dont do this or that and it made me panic after. Stripping wallpaper what a task horrible job ha i feel reassured now! everyone's probably trying to take care of me but its just worrying me once ive done it. For 16 weeks i feel full of energy.

No don't worry. I think people just say "take it easy" or whatever for the sake of something to say. Baby is very well protected in there and light every day activities in a normal pregnancy won't do any harm unless medics have indicated otherwise. I'm still at the gym and clambering around soft play with my toddler at 36 weeks!

I think a good rule of thumb is you are generally fine to carry on with activities you are used to doing for as long as you feel comfortable unless there is specific advice to the contrary - ie don't do power lifting.

I know loads of people who have continued to run around after and lift up their toddlers to no detriment and it helps me not to worry about overdoing it!

Are you being serious? !

No, not at all. People tell you to take it easy because the relaxin hormone makes it more likely that you will hurt yourself doing strenuous activities, especially if your body isn’t used to them. The baby will be absolutely fine.

There is old fashioned advice about not stretching, so I don't doubt there's lots of people telling you not to, unlike user apparently.

Just stick to maximum the things you were doing before, don't put yourself at risk of falling (stop stretching up to reach dangerously, over stretching etc) and listen to your body

Thanks for the mention !

I do yoga, love stretching!

No you won't hurt your baby by stretching.

That's a very old fashioned view from my late MIL's era. She almost had an attack of the vapours when she saw me reaching up over my head for something, but when challenged was totally unable to explain why.

If it were that easy to get rid of a pregnancy, the abortion clinics would close down. You could just send patients home with the instruction to strip some wallpaper!

What you eat and drink (and inject!?) are the things that an harm your baby. Normal activity is fine. Mind you, in about 20 weeks time you will probably feel disinclined to be stripping wallpaper!

No but you shouldn't use beech based cleaning products while pregnant.