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??

I thought it was a feat worth sharing as my dh was completely bemused as to why it was so important to me at the time - together with the shaving legs bit!

sorry - for toxaemia - read toxoplasmosis - or as doctors should call it 'nasty cat poo disease' and then idiots like me wouldn't go confusing it with things that sound just the same honest

can't drink so i found some alcohol free Becks larger - it is much better than I expected. Anyone tried alcohol free wine?

Seriously thinking about it! - alcohol free wine that is!

wax bk line

ok i admit it i stupidly tried this one and had to remove it very very slowly BIG ouch

Sorry to drag this up again but I am still a bit unsure about the cheese situation. I know blue cheeses and soft cheeses like Brie are a no-no. What about Ricotta and Mozzarella?

I think you are ok with mozarella (particularly if its pasteurised) but don't quote me on that one. Are you by any chance having a cheese craving?!!! I love cheese (more than chocolate!) and craved all the ones I couldn't eat during pregnancy!

My dh knows that I get lots of useful advice from you ladies at Mumsnet. Would it be possible to for you to advise me that I can't do some of the following things whilst I am pregnant?

Washing up
Taking the bins out
Cooking
Cleaning the loo
Supermarket shop
Getting up in the night to see to ds
Washing the nappies
and any other things you can think of that might be detrimental to my health as a pregnant woman.

grommit - don't know about ricotta, think its a case of finding out if its pasturised or not.

KeepingMum - Ironing - definitely out! Bump might get burnt for goodness sake

Flippa - yes - I've got a bit of a cheese thing going on inbetween my sickness. Easting lots of cheddar but dying for a slice of Mozzarella...as for Goats cheese, Stilton...agghhh!

I am sure you can get pasteurised goats cheese

I recently phoned the Sainsbury's help line about their Goat's cheese and they assured me that it was made from pasteurised milk - she also said that most cheeses that are made from unpasteurised milk should be clearly labelled as such. Someone else told me that most soft cheeses made in the UK have to be made from pasteurised milk - and they should be clearly marked as made from unpasteurised milk if they're not.

PS Thanks Wills for your suggestion about ironing, fortunately for us we don't actually own an ironing board and hardly ever get the iron out, this is all much to the digust of my mum who can't believe I have survived seven years of married life without ironing. (Luckily neither of us have to be that smart for work and M&S non-iron shirts are great for weddings etc).

Grommit, ricotta is definitely not on any hit-list and I think mozzarella is safe too. Well, I certainly hope so.
I keep seeing slices of roquefort dancing before my eyes, I am missing "real" cheese with a vengeance.

Can I ask a silly question here? Did anyone not really bother with all these ' shouldn't eat/ shouldn't do lists'? I just ask because I have 3 healthy kids, I didn't do anything stupid in pregnancy like get plastered or go sky-diving but I did drink wine in moderation, ate prawns, salads etc and probably a million things more on the 'list'! I appreciate that some people want to be ultra careful and I respect their views completely, but was everyone on Mumsnet this careful? Just curious!

Oxocube, I drank wine after the first 4 months in moderation (2 or 3 glasses 2 or 3 times a week). I also drank coffee (plenty of it) but I didn't smoke and I did try to avoid the dodgy foods though I ate prawns as didn't know they were dodgy!

Well I checked out a French website and (mistakes in translation apart) I think I have some more to add to your list - it matches what I seem to remember being told myself.
unpasteurised cheese - big no - but other soft cheeses are OK if you cut the crusts off - so brie etc should be alright if it's pasteurised.
to avoid toxoplasmosis as well as avoiding undercooked meat and cats poo you have to wash salads really carefully to get rid of any soil and shouldn't eat wild mushrooms as it's too hard to get rid of all the soil when washing them

And oxocube - I didn't do some that seemed to me serious (like drinking/smoking/cleaning out the cat litter tray) but ate loads of soft cheese, some prawns, things with raw egg in etc. Miond you, when I went back to the UK I got a really hard time from some people about that which is prob why it makes me so cross. What about everyone else?

oxocube, I've drunk the odd glass of wine after three months in all my pregnancies but this time round I have to admit I have tried to be very careful about what I am eating - no coleslaw, cold cooked chicken, pate etc. I think the UK advice about listeriosis is way over the top, objectively speaking, but having once been a casualty of statistics, I am just paranoid about being that unlucky person yet again.
What gets me about listeria in particular is that the advice varies from country to country. How can French cheeses like Brie be "OK" in France but become "risky" in the UK? And how come that bible of diet in pregnancy, What to Expect When you're Expecting, doesn't even mention listeriosis in its index of calamities waiting to befall us? so they don't have listeria in the US...
What's the risk factor with cheese? The unpasteurised milk, or the method of cheesemaking? (I ask this because hard cheese like Parmesan, which I bet is made in some cases with unpasteurised milk, is deemed "safe", whereas I'd personally never eat Brie because I'd be anxious I missed pruning a tiny bit of rind off...)
I sometimes think the lists of forbidden food in the UK are made up by public health officials with a streak of sadism a mile wide.

also some herbal teas - not fruit ones but more medicinal type stuff - not sure about echinaecea tho - my fave tea was the rasp:ech one
we're on a roll now - can there be much left?

I think echinacea is now considered ok, but St. John's Wort and peppermint (yes peppermint!) are not ok'd (according to some sources...)

zebra, do you mean peppermint tea?! I wouldn't say I've been drinking pints and pints of it, but I did think it was a "safer" alternative to PG Tips, and I found it helpful for morning sickness. I'd be interested to hear what you have heard about it.

Something called salicylates? I think in moderation peppermint tea is ok, but avoid the peppermint essential oil (most essential oils, really).

I asked my doc here in Switzerland & he told me firmly the only thing I have to worry about is under cooked meat until he checks my toxo. situation.

that said, i'm still avoiding unpasturised cheeses, uncooked eggs, the lot really - could do without the worry, I'd rather do without for a few months.

That's sort of my attitude too Monkey. Just as I think oh sod it I'll eat it, the "what ifs" start and that brings me to a halt.