Wearing nail polish in pregnancy is bad?!

[miamix]

Can anyone confirm the accuracy of this 'fact' I was told by my friend last night?! I have never heard this and have happily been doing my nails weekly so far. Argh!

Oh lord, some people say you shouldn't wear any make-up either! I am - wouldn't cope with the pregnancy skin without.

The amount of chemicals absorbed through your nails will be tiny if anything, particularly as nails don't have a blood supply of their own (so polish chemicals would have to soak all the way through your nail to the nail bed to have a chance of getting in your bloodstream).

I'd just be careful to only use polish in a well aired room so you don't breathe in the fumes.

I've never heard of it being bad, I wear nail polish all the time, and the Dr and midwife have never mentioned it, so I wouldn't worry!

All I do is make sure the room I paint my nails in is well ventilated, but I did that before I was pregnant too.

Enjoy having pretty nails, and ignore your friend

never heard of that one! I wouldn't worry

Yeah, I didn't think there was much to it. My toenails look horrid without rouge noir during flip flop weather!

utter crap

Well I'm in trouble if this is true. Painting my nails is my second favourite way to avoid working (MN being the first!)

I thought it was for the same reason they don't allow it during surgery - they can tell if your bloodflow is good fromfingertips and toes?

My friend insisted it was because it contains formaldehyde!

Sounds like Daily Mail tastic nonsense to me.

Painted nails is about the only thing that makes me even slightly glamourous! (What with the whole pregnancy thing and spending my life walking two boisterous dogs..!)

I've never heard that specific one, but if you listen to some people, everything you might actually enjoy is forbidden during pregnancy. It's as if pregnancy is some sort of purgatory.

My understanding is as follows:

"Some studies have linked exposure to dibutyl phthalate ? a plasticizing ingredient that has been used to increase flexibility in nail polishes as well as medical equipment ? with testicular problems in rats and humans. The chemical is banned from use in cosmetics in Europe and is considered a reproductive toxin by California.

A study that examined nail polishes and perfumes, published in 2004 in The Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, concluded that the amount of exposure to dibutyl phthalate from these cosmetics is relatively small. The study cautioned, however, that total exposure to the chemical from multiple sources may be greater and requires further investigation. "

Given said chemical is banned in Europe (and many US manufacturers have removed it from their products) I can't see it is a hazard in the UK.

From what I've read it's actually the chemicals in the nail varnish remover that are bad. The risk is so tiny though, and we can't all live in a bubble.

"I thought it was for the same reason they don't allow it during surgery - they can tell if your bloodflow is good fromfingertips and toes?"

It would make sense to me to take it off for labour for that reason (also in case of needing a section), but I've never heard of anyone checking blood flow during pregnancy.

I still say any risk there would be must be so minute there's no way it's going to affect the baby unless you're drinking the stuff, it honestly has never occurred to me that nail polish would be at all unsafe.

And if they did need to check blood/oxygen flow during pregnancy wouldn't the hospital or whatever have access to something that would remove nail polish?

Just thinking now about emergency surgeries, obviously if I was hit by a bus tomorrow and needed surgery they would need to remove the nail polish on my finger and toe nails, so surely they would have something at the hospital to do it?

Sorry about the waffle miamix!

Not sure I should admit this but I have possibly more than 150 Nail Polishes...I'm also pregnant

Dibutyl phthalate, formaldehyde and toulene are all quite nasty and used to be in polish, in the US this is still the case althought that has been changing in recent years, but they are not permitted in EU cosmetics any longer. Some of your older polish may have these chemicals but UK drug store nail polish or higher end brands that you buy now (in the EU/UK) is going to be OK.

Personally though, I chose not to do my nails in the first tri, but then I swapped to lots of organic products and mineral make up and organic food etc this is just my personal choice, I'm not preaching! From 2nd tri onwards I chose to do my nails in a well ventilated area and limit how often I change as I'm not so keen on using the removers (can't tell you why but unlike polish, it gets on the skin and I guess it is basically 'paint thinner' at the end of the day)

ugh whats next! never heard of that one