OCD during pregnancy. Will the chemicals in antibac hand soap affect my baby if i use soap excessively?

[lsjjehfkje]

Will excessively washing hands with antibacterial soap up to 30 times a day affect developing baby? I excessively washed hands during first trimester due to ocd. Any stories of similar situations where your baby turned out fine would be appreciated. I have heard bad things about antibac soap.

I don't know what chemicals your specific hand soap has so can't comment. But the bacteria on your skin are mostly harmless and the harmless ones act as protection to crowd out any nasty invaders. So by killing them all indiscriminately you're actually reducing your defences in the long-term. Outside of a clinical setting (and possibly in some other limited circumstances) anti-bacterialising yourself is not a great idea.

Ordinary soap on the other hand is a very useful surface cleaner which will sweep away a lot of stuff you don't want, without killing all the harmless bacteria. Could you switch to soap?

I realise it's more nuanced than this, but sure you can do your own research 😊

I believe it's mainly sulfates.

I'v got ocd and wash my hands up to 100 times a day, it has never harmed my DC.

Have you had the baby yet? Thank you.

I have 3DC and third trimester with the fourth.

what does DC mean?

Dear/darling child