Things you cannot do when you are pregannt

[grommit]

I am having difficulty remembering the list of things not to do when you are pregnant so thought I'd ask the experts. Food - soft cheese, shellfish, liver, pate, uncooked eggs. I also remember something about not wearing underwire bras, not visiting birthing sheep, not using electric blanket, not spraying garden pesticides, not gardening without gloves....Anything else??

Thanks Wills!

Wills, I've definitely bought Feta made with cows rather than goats milk in Somerfield, recently too. I can't think it would have been unpasteurised but I'll look next time I'm there. I've been eating hard goats cheese, isn't that all right then? Blimey, there are soooo many banned things, its almost impossible to remember them all so I'm glad you started this grommit. I have been eating 4 minute boiled eggs, what do we reckon? OK or not? The other thread was about shellfish and pregnancy but cheese was discussed - it's here

Heatstroke in mother is lethal to the fetus, maybe that's why the sunbeds are out.

Aerobic exercise is ok if you were doing it pre-pregnancy -- just gotta watch for: heatstroke, joint strain, dehydration, sunburn and fatigue.

Don't change the kitty litter (at least, not without gloves).

Don't go near ewes about to drop their lambs.

Avoid any reptile or bird that might carry salmonella.

Don't drink lots of tea if you're prone to anemia, and especially not with other foods: Tea contains tannins which are little chemicals that "steal" all the iron in your system.

With thanks to SueW (for posting the original address), I've just been looking at the FSA site as they've recently updated their "pregnancy" page. Its not helpful over hard unpasturised cheeses but it did say... "Avoid eating shark, swordfish and marlin and limit the amount of tuna you eat." I thought we were supposed to limit shark, marlin etc - I certainly hadn't realised we were supposed to cut it out!

Also came across an interesting article about eating greens but it was written in Dec 01 and I haven't found an update since:

"Pregnant women might be able to protect their unborn child against allergies, including asthma, by eating more foods containing vitamin E." They conclude that the results were not conculsive enough to recommend that pregnant women change their eating habits but since I've currently got a craving for spinach I'm currently feeling quite chuffed with myself.

I have a friend who's sister had a craving for peanuts during her pregnancy and her daughter now has a serious allergy to nuts even though neither her or the husband do. Don't know why it just happened.

Reading this thread makes you realise that once you're pregnant you should stay at home, in bed, in a dark room and not leave it for the full 9 months. My view while I was pregnant was to eat and drink what I liked within moderation as I figured that's what people have done since the beginning of time and before we had doctors who told us what we couldn't do.

Sunbathing is fine but do avoid heatstroke.

Cows milk feta is available in asda too.

what's wrong with underwire bras?? Am sitting here trying to imagine what could go wrong?
I remember cuddling cats and cleaning litter trays is a no no too. What a shame! (not)

No to aspirin, ibuprofen family of drugs. Thin the blood too much. Pareacetamol is ok taken as directed.
No to most insect repellents (contain DEET=diethyl toulamide, which causes birth defects).
No to many over-the-counter drugs.
No to dental xrays.
No to working with lots of specific chemicals found in certain work places (eg., I think, disinfectants used in operating theatres).
No to painting with paints with high VOC (volatile organic compound) levels.

I wouldn't worry about underwire bras during pregnancy. But they can pinch milk ducts post-partum and cause infections when breastfeeding.

When I was pg we went on holiday, and I wasn't allowed on the water slide (:

wow, zebra, thank you so mush - just read about insect repellants. i'mm pretty cautious, but For some reason it hadn't even crossed my mind. I've just put a bottle by my bed ready for our annual mossie invasion (fortunately we got late snow instead of easrly mossies)! Dh won't be too happy if I won't let him plug in the thingy & I"m not looking forward to getting eaten alive all summer - any ideas for safe alternatives then.

Zebra - thanks again - blimey it just shows how vunerable baby is in today's world - I bet when our mum's had us there wasn't half of this - I mean who'd even heard of goats cheese or feta 30 years ago??

Lisalisa says on another board that head lice shampoo is a no no

Maybe we should just live in a sterile bubble (away from any UV rays!!) whilst we are pregnant and eat very well cooked vegetables and take Iron and Folic acid tablets by the handful!!!

Isn't it scary all these forbidden items and activities?????

I always think it's a bit hysterical. My GP pointed out something that got me thinking... you are just as likely to contract listeria, salmonella and other bacterial infections from, soft cheeses etc when you are NOT pregnant!! So what makes you think you'll catch it when you are?
I didn't eat them because of the fear that was instilled in me by all the flamin' pregnancy books which I will NOT be consulting for my second (wishful thinking!). They had me worried about everything that passed my lips...... was I 'allowed' it, was it cooked properly, did I wash all the pesticides off......

It all gets a bit stressful!!!! I mean what next?????

Agreed that possibly we should all live in a bubble but to come out slightly in defence of those pregnancy books (although it was similar books that got me soooo wound up about the possibility of cot death that I practically froze dd for her first six months of life ).

Firstly most articles when talking about listeria/salmonella etc say that pregnant women, young children and old age pensions are MORE suscetable to it, so the fact that soft eggs never gave you listeria whilst you were not pregnant doesn't mean you are just as unlikely to get it whilst pregnant.

Second - I think in our societies today we now have the great pleasure of a number of foods that weren't available to our mums and possibly we don't have the resistance levels that might have been built up within the food's native countries. Take nuts for instance, its a fact that the recent numbers of young children with nut allergies has led to the British government issuing a warning to pregnant women in this country not to eat nuts if there is a history of allergies in their (or their partner's) family. I was reading another thread last night where someone from Indonesia commented that no deaths are reported there from nut allergies and although someone cynically commented on the general health system probably not noticing its still a valid point.

Thirdly, 30 years ago a lot more babies either died or were born with birth defects.

Fourth(ly), we are far more man made stuff i.e. the mossie sprays (thanks for that one it never occured to me either).

Finally, these are only guidelines, some more sensible and advisable to follow than others. Please don't think I'm telling people what to do cos I'm not. I'm a tea addict and currently have a craving for green veg and eggs

In 2000 there were 113 cases of listeria reported in the UK, Salmonella 16,987, Campylobacter 62,867, E.coli O157 1,147. These figures are from the FSA website .

Toxoplasmosis - in the UK it is believed around 30% of the population have antibodies already whereas in France the figure is around 80%. The main risks of catching toxo come from eating raw meat and cat faeces. If yu have always eaten raw meat and always handled cat faeces, the chances are you have already had toxo. I'd like to reference this but I can't remember where I got it from but may have been the toxo trust.

Found this too about toxo which might be interesting.

We certainly have a very different attitude to eathing while pregnant than people in France and Italy do. I have friends in both these countries who ate pate, soft cheese, drank wine etc all through their pregnancies and my frind in Paris says that the British paranoia is a bit of a joke in France.
Ibuprofen/Aspirin type drugs don't only thin the blood, they can damage the baby's circulation. Wehn a baby id born the blood has to stop flowing into the placenta and instead be rerouted to the lungs. Taking these drugs can prevent this from happening properly.

I ate loads of stuff that you are not supposed to when I was pregnant. I moderated everything but did eat soft cheese, foi gras and other things like this. I'm not advocating it for others but it suited me and I was comfortable doing it.

We forgot to say that Preggo women should avoid other people with shingles, chickenpox or rubella, unless you know you've got immunity against those...

When pregnant, sometimes because I didn't know I was pregnant, I have eaten soft cheese with abandon, gotten pissed, had a dental xray, self-applied DEET-containing repellent because I didn't know DEET=diethyl toulamide, worked with ionising radiation...I never bothered with gloves in the garden because I grew up drinking raw cow's milk and chucking cat poop out of sandpits, digging my hands into garden soil and finding cat poop there, too. If I haven't had toxoplasmosis by now, it's not possible for anybody to catch it.

I reckon you just do your best to avoid things and hope for the best. Some things are more important to avoid than others (like Heatstroke), Others are just preferable to avoid but don't stress if you can't (like nuts and soft cheeses...)

My two children only have 3 heads between them (honest)...

MosiGuard is a good non-DEET insect repellant. Contains citronella....which may not be proven absolutely safe, but at least it's not proven unsafe which DEET is.

IMO all this stuff about cheese is a right load of rubbish - like susanmt says, they don't bother with it in France and they should know - they seem to make half the stuff on the banned list.
Out here in Morocco they just obsessed about toxaemia (prob because of all the cats running around) and I had a blood test every month for it and had to avoid undercooked meat (bleugh) and cat poo (double bleugh). And that waa it - ncie and easy hey?

I don't understand why people get so het up about avoiding certain things - no one is actually stopping it passing your lips, they are just informing you and leaving you to make your own decision. Personally, I'd much rather that than they not mentioning it at all and then IF the worst happens you find out then. My mum had a m/c she is sure happened because she had a friend with german measles (rubella) and she still really wishes she had known.

It's only 9 months of your life, surely it's not going to kill you to avoid a few things? And if it does, well that's up to you to weigh up the risks.

I think these days, in the western world, because maternal and infant mortality is low, we tend to treat pregancy much more like normal life than historically it ever was. A couple of centuries ago 1 in 10 women died in childbirth and some of pregnancy was concerned in preparing for your death.

Have to agree that it should be a personal decision and I hope that no one thinks I've been lecturing at all. Talking to my mother she was given loads of advice much of which is not relevant for todays' society. i.e. yes you can smoke etc. As for the French, I work for a French company and subsequently have many Parisian friends. I was curious about the French governments approach and the couple of friends that have been/are pregnant were pretty much given the same guidelines as the Ammericans i.e. NO alcohol (whereas we're allowed 2 - 4 units a week) and no soft cheese. This is what they were told by their French doctors but they only come from Paris so possibly its a regional thing.

I like to think I do the best I can with information I have currently. I have no doubt that by the time my dd is pregnant things will have changed dramatically and she will find the things I was advised to do/not to do, just as strange as I find some of the advice given to my mother.

Finally I was a lot more complacent during my second pregnancy, carried on drinking, ate soft eggs etc, but it ended in a miscarriage. I have no tangible reason for the miscarriage and I probably would have lost the baby regardless of what I ate/drank but its made me so much more careful during this one. I've read lots on what you should and shouldn't eat and the reasons why and I hope my posts come across as merely informative. As Philippat states its a personal decision.

To get back to the start of the thread...

Hovering the stairs! DH has to do then now

Its difficult shaving your legs when heavily pregnant - thats not to say I didn't give it a try!!!

Ouch!

Message withdrawn

The day before I went into labour, (at 40 + 8 days), I managed to apply an all-over fake tan! It was a little streaky and patchy to say the least, but at least noone said I looked peaky after having DD!

Flippa - I admire you! I just about managed to wash my face the day before dd arrival!