WHAT YOU DRANK BEFORE YOU KNEW YOU WERE PREGNANT | Many of us drink too much alcohol in the early weeks of pregnancy before realizing there’s a zygote in there. That Hen night you went on when two weeks pregnant, however, is not something to worry about. The real worry is if you can’t stop now you know you’re pregnant (see drinking advice below). Drinking too much alcohol throughout pregnancy can lead to fetal alcohol syndrome (where your baby is damaged because you are drinking 40–50 units of alcohol every week, or binge drinking). Get reassurance from your midwife and doctor about your early pregnancy behaviour, then move on to no more than two units (i.e. a couple of small glasses of wine) a week. This is the current UK government recommendation.
AIR TRAVEL | There is no evidence that holiday or business air travel will do you any harm whatsoever when pregnant. However, if you have pregnancy complications do consult your doctor before flying. The best time to travel is probably in your second trimester – in the middle three months. You will be less sick, more mobile, energetic and not yet the size of Free Willy. Take a large bottle of water, a bag of healthy snacks and move around a lot to avoid any chance of deep vein thrombosis (potentially fatal blood clots). Most airlines have a policy about pregnancy and air travel; most say you should not travel after a certain point in your pregnancy, usually 28–36 weeks. It may be hard to find this on a website, so try phoning the airline. Many will take your word as to how many weeks pregnant you are, though some may require a letter from your doctor. If you’re considering stretching the truth, however, remember airline staff are generally not trained medical professionals. Giving birth 8,000 feet above the Atlantic would be less than ideal.
Where to go for help:
About.com has a list of airlines and their rules about pregnancy and flying: www.airtravel.about.com
The Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology also have guidelines for air travel safety on their website: www.rcog.org.uk
Air travel tip:
Obstetrician Lucy Chappell says, ‘As a general rule, simply think about the health care system of the country you are going to and whether you would like to be in it, should any complications arise. Avoid islands – where you can’t easily get to a hospital – and developing countries where possible.’
VACCINATIONS | This is a legitimate worry. Some ‘live’ vaccines, like those against chickenpox are unwise to have when pregnant; others such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis A, and tetanus are OK for pregnant women who are at risk of getting these diseases. Talk to your doctor about vaccinations if you’ve had them before you knew you were pregnant, or if you are thinking of having them before travelling.
AIR POLLUTION | Thousands of healthy babies are born each year in inner London, one of Europe’s most polluted areas. Books will warn you about lead in traffic fumes, but really, if you live in an urban area, there’s not much you can do about this short of ceasing to breathe or wearing a Michael Jackson mask. City life is not going to harm your unborn baby. If it did, half the babies in Hammersmith would have birth defects.
PESTICIDES IN FOOD | You will probably hear, at some point, that you should eat only organic food when pregnant or you will poison your unborn child with pesticides. Some women have the money to do this. Most of us, however, don’t. The vast majority of us eat normal supermarket food when up the duff and our babies emerge just fine. According to the UK Government’s 2002 Committee on Toxicity, pregnant or breastfeeding women are unlikely to be any more vulnerable to the ‘cocktail’ effect of low-level pesticides in food than anyone else. You should, however, wash fruit and vegetables thoroughly. If you peel fruit, by the way, you will reduce the vitamin and fibre content.
BENDING AND LIFTING | Your midwife or health visitor will be able to give you tips on how to avoid back strain, what you should and should not lift, and how to cope when you have to carry bigger children or toddlers. It’s handy to pretend that you can’t lift anything at all, so that your partner has to do all the supermarket shopping etc., but it is fine for a pregnant woman to lift moderate weights (i.e. a shopping bag or two) from the car to the house. The main problem is back strain, so bend from the knee rather than your back when lifting. Having said that, most mothers of more than one child have, at some point, been forced to wrestle a howling, kicking, 30lb toddler out of the toyshop/supermarket/playground while heavily pregnant with no bad consequences (other than to our mental health). The basic rule is: if it’s heavy, try to avoid lifting it, and if you have to lift it, try to lift it with a good posture and try not to lift it above waist level. A physiotherapist-run class at your hospital will give you tips for bending and lifting. You can also divide your shopping into smaller, lighter bags: more trips, in general, are better than heavier bags.
HOT BATHS | The baby inside you does not have a temperature regulation of its own so if you get overheated your baby can’t do anything about it. For this reason, hot tubs, saunas and Jacuzzis are not a good idea in pregnancy as they can raise your temperature too high for too long (above 39C/102F) which may affect your baby’s heart rate. Normal baths (unless you go mad with the hot tap and sit there sweltering for hours) will do you and the baby no harm (and probably some good, as you’ll relax).
Bath tip:
Keep a limb out of the water during your bath and lift your body out for a bit if you feel too hot or sweaty.
SEX | Unless you have a contra-indicating medical condition (for example, you have a low lying placenta, your waters have broken early or you have been warned by your doctor to abstain for any other reason) normal sexual intercourse will not harm your baby. Many women, particularly in mid-pregnancy, feel seriously sexy. Since most of us have a low sex drive after pregnancy (for up to a couple of years!) make the most of any rampant phases you may have. Many men, paradoxically, can’t look this gift horse in the mouth: the most common fear among male partners is that their penis’s head will ‘bump the baby’. Luckily no man – no matter how impressively large he is down there – is that well-endowed. He’d have to get through the vagina, mucus plug and cervix, into the uterus then through the amniotic sac before he could do any damage to your baby. This is simply not going to happen. It is, however, best to avoid really forceful or deep penetration – this can be uncomfortable, for a start. Nor will the weight of your partner squeeze the baby out (if only it did medical induction would be distinctly less common). The best tip is to experiment with positions: side-lying, your partner behind you, you on top of him – any angle really, once the missionary position gets tricky. Your orgasm will not make you miscarry (unless you are at risk of premature labour, in which case talk to your midwife). A vibrator is fine, too. There are no studies to show a vibrator cannot be used during pregnancy. But – brace yourself here if you’re squeamish – introducing germs into the vagina during pregnancy is not a good idea, so clean your vibrator well and don’t mix orifices.
Sex tips:
Don’t insert foreign objects, air or water in your vagina during pregnancy. If you bleed at any time after intercourse, contact your doctor/midwife straight away.
If, after orgasms, you experience a lot of uterine contractions, check with your doctor/midwife. Oxytocin, the ‘love hormone’ associated with orgasm, can also cause mild, clenching, harmless contractions in your womb after orgasms. (During labour oxytocin is actually the hormone that makes your womb contract to get the baby out.)
If you know you are at risk of premature labour, or if you have any other concerns, talk to your doctor/midwife about whether or not it’s ok to have sex.
Sex can be genuinely beneficial (it tones the pelvic floor muscles, gets the circulation going, relieves tension) but it may feel a bit weird for you in your pregnant state.