Once you find out you’re pregnant, you will likely hear and read about how you should no longer indulge in hot tubs, sushi and laying on your back. But there are some other, less talked about, things that could negatively impact your pregnancy as well. Here are 4 things you may not have realized you should avoid during pregnancy.
Hey Mama, if you find my blog posts helpful, would you help support this blog by making purchases through product links on this page? It will not cost you any extra but the commissions I receive as an Amazon and brand affiliate help to cover the costs of operating this blog so that I can keep it running ad-free. Thank you so much for your support. You are literally the reason this blog was started and the fuel that motivates me to keep it going!
4 Surprising Things to Avoid During Pregnancy
1. Non-Stick Cookware
The first thing you should avoid during pregnancy is non-stick cookware. While you may have heard by now that non-stick pots and pans can release chemicals into your food, you may not realize how dangerous this can be to your developing baby.
I was pretty frightened by the facts I found on the topic in this post by Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Lily Nichols.
In it, she explains that the chemicals used to make non-stick coating for cookware – perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs for short – are not found anywhere in nature yet have been found in the blood samples of people all over the world, including in remote areas.
Perhaps the most disturbing thing about these particular chemicals (and the chemicals they morph into during cooking) is the fact that they remain in the body virtually forever.
Nichols notes that ingestion and inhalation of PFCs during pregnancy has been proven to be directly passed on to the baby which can (and has) lead to severe complications and birth defects.
Some of the pregnancy and birth consequences she mentions are low birth weight, hindered organ and bone development, and higher rates of infections for the baby as well as higher risks of inflammation and preeclampsia in the mom.
Also read about 4 frightening things that can happen during pregnancy that may be completely normal here.
She explains that simply scratching the surface of your pot or cooking at temperatures above 325° Fahrenheit releases these chemicals that have so much potential to cause damage.
Her recommendations are to use traditional ceramic (not non-stick), cast iron or stainless steel cookware. PFCs are also a hazard found in contaminated water, the packaging of processed foods, and clothing and furniture stain-resistant sprays, so try to avoid these things as well.
I highly recommend that you read Nichols’ post as it goes into far more detail about the dangers and risks involved in exposure to PFCs than what I have referenced here.
Update 5/31/2024: This is something I still do my best to avoid during pregnancy – and also when heating up food for my children once they start solids. After reading this information and writing this post several years ago, we purchased this set of good quality, stainless steel Cuisinart cookware that I use for the large majority of my cooking and reheating. While they are obviously not as stick-resistant as non-stick cookware, they clean up just fine with steel wool scrubbies.
2. Too Many Vitamins
This might sound like an oxymoron. Is it really possible to have too much of a good thing? Are vitamins really among the things to avoid during pregnancy?
As a matter of fact, yes. It is actually possible to take too many vitamins while pregnant. Particularly with how frequently prenatal vitamins are marketed to expectant mamas as being essential to their unborn child’s health, creating a belief that we need to flood our bodies with as many vitamins as possible.
While it is debatable how necessary prenatal vitamins are during pregnancy, there is one thing experts agree on: Too much artificial vitamin intake can be toxic.
Taking a prenatal vitamin alone should not cause an overdose, but if you are using other supplements in addition to this, you need to be careful and verify with your doctor or midwife that the amounts you are taking of each vitamin are safe.
Edit: If you are looking for a good prenatal vitamin, I love this Garden of Life Once Daily Prenatal. I love that you only have to choke down one pill a day instead of 2-4 in the midst of morning sickness. I also like that it contains folate instead of the artificial folic acid. Additionally, this vitamin is made from organic whole foods, so you know you are feeding your body and your baby the most natural form of vitamins.
The APA has a table with the recommended daily amounts of vitamins during pregnancy, but keep in mind that natural foods are the best sources of vitamins (also something experts agree on whether or not they advise taking a prenatal supplement).
By eating healthy food, you will be giving your baby (and your own body) the vitamins he needs in the balanced way they are meant to be ingested.
Of course, if you have dietary restrictions or have certain deficiencies due to health issues, you may need to supplement with artificial vitamins. Just remember not to be overzealous by assuming that more is better.
The consequences of ingesting too many vitamins can be serious for your developing child (not to mention you, Mama). Too much vitamin A, for example, can result in the baby being born with a malformed head, heart, brain or spinal cord (Source).
Even vitamin D can have a negative impact on the baby when the mother takes in more than what is recommended. Higher levels of vitamin D in the mother during pregnancy have been linked to children developing allergies by age two (Source).
Also, excessive amounts of iron can cause organ damage and death for anyone, but even a “healthy” amount consumed in a supplement may cause high blood pressure in a pregnant mother which can lead to preeclampsia (Source).
Too much folate/folic acid can also have negative effects. One study revealed rats who are given large quantities of folic acid during pregnancy gave birth to rats who grew up to be obese and insulin resistant (Source).
Another study found that moms who had very high levels of folate in their blood when they delivered were twice as likely as those with normal folate levels to have their child develop autism (Source).
Healthcare professionals still maintain that at least some of these vitamins are essential to supplement a healthy diet during pregnancy, but caution against combining multivitamins with individual vitamins without first discussing your vitamin intake with your doctor or midwife.
Although you may need some extra vitamins to keep yourself and your baby nourished, ingesting more vitamins than what is recommended for your situation is definitely something you want to avoid during pregnancy – or any time for that matter.
3. Gardening and Food Preparation
Now that you’re pregnant, you may have been told by friends or healthcare providers to avoid changing your cat’s litter box. But did you know that the same risk involved in changing cat litter is also present in dirt, raw meat and unwashed fruits and vegetables?
The problem all of these things have in common is that they all have the potential to be the home to a parasite called toxoplasma gondii – something you definitely want to avoid during pregnancy if you have not been exposed to it prior to becoming pregnant.
If you come into contact with this parasite, you can contract toxoplasmosis. This is not a serious situation for most people (some people never even know they have it while others get flu-like symptoms), but if you get it during pregnancy, your baby is at risk for various resulting conditions.
Still need a Baby’s First Year journal? Grab a free one from Mama Rissa by entering your email at the bottom of this page!
The APA (American Pregnancy Association) states that 1 in 1,000-8,000 babies born in the U.S. will have toxoplasmosis. Perhaps part of the reason this number is relatively small is because many women have already been infected before being pregnant.
However, if you have not been infected in the past and become infected shortly before or during pregnancy, according to the APA, you are at greater risk for having preterm birth and stillbirth.
Your baby is also at a greater risk of being born with abnormal head size, jaundice, mental retardation, low birth weight, and convulsions.
Fortunately, you do not have to give up cats, cooking and gardening for nine months. The recommendation is that you simply wear gloves while gardening or handling raw meat, wash fruits and veggies, and thoroughly wash your hands after any of these activities.
If there is someone else who can change the cat litter box, enjoy taking a break from that chore for now. Otherwise, the protocol is the same as above: Wear gloves and wash your hands.
If you want to know more about toxoplasmosis and how it is treated, March of a Dimes has more information here.
4. Crossing Your Legs
Crossing our legs is a common habit for most of us, but some studies suggest it raises our blood pressure when we sit like this (Source). And having elevated blood pressure for extended periods of time is a complication you need to avoid during pregnancy.
While this may not be overly concerning (assuming you’re not sitting in this position unmoving for hours at a time), the bigger problem with leg-crossing is how it effects your posture.
Read about 9 simple solutions to make your pregnancy more comfortable.
Crossing your legs causes your pelvis to tilt backwards which inhibits your baby from moving into optimal position for birth (Source).
No matter what type of birth experience you want to have (natural or medicated, home or hospital), you will want your baby in the best possible position for birth to make your labor go as smoothly as possible.
The best way to achieve this is by doing prenatal exercises (which will also help with back pain) and avoiding unhealthy posture habits which not only make you uncomfortable, but squish your baby into uncomfortable positions as well.
Get my FREE list of pregnancy comfort essentials by entering your email at the bottom of this page!
You basically want to do the opposite of crossing your legs, particularly throughout your third trimester. Keep your hips as open as possible whenever you sit to help prepare your body and your baby for labor.
Don’t Obsess Over the Baking Instructions
Baby bumps don’t come in a wrapper with baking instructions. It’s a lot of work to figure out all the dos and don’ts of pregnancy … And even more work to follow that list perfectly all the time!
Don’t stress yourself out, Mama. Every expectant mom has had a piece of deli meat or lifted a box and broken the “rules” of pregnancy.
It’s not about doing everything perfectly all the time (kind of like motherhood). It’s about doing your best.
When you pull a frozen pizza out of its box and pop it in your oven, you will probably ruin the pizza if you set the temperature a hundred degrees above the recommended temperature on the instructions.
But as long as you set the correct temp, it’s probably not necessary to be so extreme as to test the accuracy of your oven thermometer before sliding the pan in.
Similarly, when you’ve got a “bun in the oven” it’s beneficial to follow the “instructions,” but you don’t have to be obsessive.
For what it’s worth, I used non-stick cookware while I was pregnant with my daughter (before I knew about the dangers of it) and she is now a healthy and happy 16-month-old toddler.
We mamas often worry too much. It’s the nature of the job. Just remember that staying happy and positive often has a more substantial effect on your baby than following all of the rules.
What other pregnancy dos and don’ts have you been hearing about? Share them in the comments!
Leave a Reply