How careful are you about observing pregnancy rules? i.e. food, lifestyle etc

[flyingcloud]

I know it's a case of weighing up the risks, but coming on MN scares me sometimes! Today I read that dying my hair and eating chinese food are bad. I just wondered what experienced mothers' individual takes on this were. My friends are split between the strictly observant ones (no caffeine, no chocolate and not a snifter of alcohol) and the ones who don't really bother to find out what to do and what not to do, so eat pâté, drink a glass when they feel like, dye their hair, fly as late as they can, etc, etc.

I have done the following while pregnant, mostly unwittingly: not knowing I'm pregnant or not knowing it wasn't allowed and I'm feeling increasingly guilty:
Drink coffee (one cup a day, can't do without)
Eat chocolate
Have eaten steak tartare before knowing I was pregnant
Drank like a fish for the first two weeks (when I didn't know I was pg)
Smoked for the first two weeks (ditto)
Eaten packaged service station sandwiches
Dyed my hair
Eaten chinese food, undoubtedly stuffed with msg

etc, etc

I am not immune to toxoplasmosis either.

You may think I'm stupid for asking all these questions, but would love some real motherhood experiences.

Thank you!

I'm surprised by how relaxed I am, so am definitely in the 'a little bit of what you fancy does you good' camp.

I've eaten salami and a rare steak (both before realising that I shouldn't) and am dying to get to 12 weeks (I'm currently 8+4) so I can have a glass of wine.

In fact, that's the thing I miss the most - all of my friends who have had kids have said, "Oh, you won't want to drink when you find out!" but quite frankly, I could cheerfully murder anyone for an ice cold glass of sauvignon blanc right now.

On the good side - I'm avoiding pate and runny eggs, and I don't like soft or blue cheeses or tea, so that's been very easy.

Oh and I've swapped my one and only coffee of the day for decaf. But that's it really.

Nikijoli, I live in France too and I eat lots of mozzarrella! I always thought it was pasteurised too.

I don't have any answers for anyone: my advice if you're worried or unsure is go for your local standard govt advice and stick with that. I was just curious, when starting this thread, how everyone felt and how many different 'theories' people picked up. I think sometimes we read somewhere (posts on MN, newspaper articles, t'internet), unsubstantiated advice that x is bad, and then avoid x forevermore in pregnancy without really knowing why and equally, when a friend (or MN) tells us that something is fine, we reincorporate it. I'm not criticising MN here, but everyone expresses opinions here and sometimes that's just what they are: opinions and not fact.

I totally respect people's choices either way. It is nigh on impossible to know the risks your particular lifestyle choices pose to your unborn baby and so you either follow the guidelines to the letter or you make your own informed choices.

A doctor friend says it is a myth about alcohol being safer after the first three months... it has the same dangers throughout your pregnancy.

That said i have been having the odd glass of wine, champagne, pimms since i found out - just not more than one a time and not more than twice a week.

3 cups of tea a day & eating packaged sarnies & seafood - but cooked, oh and smoked salmon. discovered M&S sushi has no raw fish

I have avoided unpasteurised soft cheese but have eaten pasteurised brie. Had a real dilemma the other day when bought a soft pasteurised brie, with no warnings on, and unpasteusrised hard cheese, which said it should be avoided by pregnant women, old people and children! I ate the brie type one & left the hard one.

Think the FSA guidelines are pretty sensible if in doubt - not too prescriptive

I take a positive attitude and concentrate on what I SHOULD eat and do, not what I shouldn't. I eat fruit, vegetables and salad every day, plus nuts and pulses, oily fish and chicken. I do lots of walking, get plenty of rest.

I've also flown weekly (there's nothing against this!), eaten lots sushi (it's good food!), ditto other banned foods, if it is clearly using a good source for its ingredients (i.e. expensive ). I have a glass of wine once or twice a week, if I want it. But I also drink lots of water.

I was amazed when a dinner companion commented on my smoked salmon starter by saying 'it's so refreshing to find someone who doesn't worry about what they eat when they're pregnant". I think I have an excellent diet. You can get listeria from any food from an unreliable source.

I have also be screened twice for listeria and toxoplasmosis during my pregnancy (mandatory where I am) and I was clear.

Just wanted to link to this article by Zoe Williams in the Guardian. A very sensible take on the what to eat/what to avoid debate.

Hi Caitni,

I too have read this article and I linked to to it in another thread about toxoplasmosis. Someone who had very sadly lost a baby at 20w to toxoplasmosis said this article is very misleading about toxoplasmosis.

I live in France too and they are obsessed with Toxoplasmosis here. I'm not immune (which is surprising the amount of cured meats, rare steaks and unwashed salads i've eaten in the past) so I have to be screened once a month. I have followed guidelines and given up the things i'm not supposed to eat, but you can find yourself getting a bit paranoid. I was in the supermarket last night and spent ages deliberating about whether to buy some panache (shandy) with less than 1.2% alcohol in in case I shouldn't have one!
I have dyed my hair but waited until after 3 months.
Is anyone else avoiding artificial sweetners? I was a bit of a Diet coke fiend before I was pregnant and i've stopped having it, and sweetner on my cereal (good excuse to revert to sugar!!)

OMG, go without tea, that's barbaric! I will be cutting out the alcohol and reducing the amount of tea I drink but I'm determined not to go completely nuerotic about this.

Hmm, had smoked salmon yesterday... problem?

I'm 11 weeks with number two and both times I've followed this advice...

www.eatwell.gov.uk/agesandstages/pregnancy/whenyrpregnant/

Which seems very sensible and restrained and less hysterical than other advice I've heard.

Have never heard about pre-packed sandwiches (although not a fan anyway) nor Chinese food. I think it's completely fine to dye your hair (had my highlights done at the weekend actually) because presumably hairdressers get pregnant too.

Have to say, though, that I've never been 'told' about what to eat/not to eat by anyone - midwife, doctor, whatever.

verytiredmummy - this is a good link, and seems really sensible.

I am sort of in the middle re: food, etc - I don't eat pate or soft cheese anyway, and I avoid undercooked meat. However I was given a pregnancy diary type thing by my midwife the other day (she had been given a batch) and it listed the following foods to avoid, as well as all the old favourites:

Sliced meat
Pre-prepared salad, or any salad which has been standing for a while (doesn't say how long a while is...)
Cooked chopped chicken
Chilled quiches, pies, pasties, etc
Packaged sandwiches

All of which I have been merrily eating and have eaten in this pregnancy thus far!

As far as bagged salad goes - no-one has ever told me to wash it - I have just heard it from other people, certainly not my midwife!

FWIW, I think the last figures for listeria was 32 cases in pregnant women in one year. The main culprit is out of date food and undercooked ready meals.

Well, I've cut alcohol down to 2 small glasses per week with food, and I'm trying to limit the amount of caffeine too. Cooking my steak more too. However, I'm a bit lax on the cheese and egg front - a well-cooked fried egg is useless in my opinion, and who can resist licking the bowl when making cake?

Lifestyle-wise, horse-riding till 25 weeks last time (and then only stopped because my instructor got nervous) and cycling 50+ miles per week till 38 weeks, both without problems.

So what are we feeling about dippy egg and soldiers then people? Ok? or not?

Oh my goodness - I want egg and buttery soldiers NOW!

I think OK. The risk is closest to the shell the white (which is the bit close to the shell) has been cooked. I've eaten them the whole way through being pg and have eaten soft boiled eggs all my life and never caught salmonella.

Don't know what I'd have eaten when I wanted something for dinner so I'd had something but didn't want anything too heavy. I'm lucky enough to have my own chickens so the eggs are yummy!

In that case dippy eggs rule. I don't like the white anyway.