*veg sushi and fried salmon skin sushi from Hokkaido in Norwood.
Today on Twitter I was having a conversation with acidicice and PinkPrincesse about the fact that I had sushi for lunch and I thought I would continue that conversation here.
It made me think of all the other pregnancy ‘rules’ that I have broken or bent.
Sushi – you are not supposed to eat raw fish as it can contain parasites and bacteria that can harm the growing baby.
With Aaron I stayed away from sushi entirely. This time I am eating vegetarian sushi and sushi that has been cooked. My view is that as long as the fish and other ingredients are fresh and the restaurant is clean and reputable, the chances are you wont have a problem. Besides japanese women eat sushi right through pregnancy…
Hot baths – hot baths can cause your body temperature to rise to unsafe levels and cause brain and spinal abnormalities in the baby.
It winter, Im freezing and the thought of a luke warm bath makes me ill. I run a hot bath and then let it cool while I relax. I don’t run a boiling bath but its hot enough that I turn pink. I also don’t add more hot water and I just let the bath cool gradually.
Hot dogs – they can be the source of a rare illness called listeriosis.
I cook them until they are boiling all the way through. This should kill the bacteria that can cause illness.
Coffee/tea/fizzy drinks – In short caffeine.
Im not a big coffee drinker but I do drink tea and fizzy drinks like Coke. I drink them in moderation but I do drink them.
Runny eggs – eggs that are not cooked properly can carry the salmonella bacteria.
To be honest I had never heard of salmonella until I met a group of Americans while on a kibbutz in Israel. They refused to eat runny eggs, and when I asked if they ever ate runny eggs they said no, even at home the ate them hard. Now I buy my eggs from Woolies, I make sure the expiry date is still good and we eat them within a week. Im pretty confident that they are clean, healthy eggs. So far I’ve eaten two runny eggs. Then again, I’ve eaten two eggs in the last 4 months…
What rules have you broken? Are there rules you absolutely will NOT break?
Broke all of those except the sushi (only had it once and that was last year) – and more.
Eggs are not meant to be eaten hard, they need to be sunny/runny. It is good to start your day with protein (eggs) when pg.
The risks related to food are Toxoplasmosis, Listeria and Salmonella (basically food poisoning – Salmonella is the most common variety and not really harmful to baby just horrible to have if pregnant) – http://www.babyandpregnancy.co.uk/ToxoplasmosisListeriaSalmonella.html
Rules I would not break (that I can think of off hand) are meds – I was very careful with what I took when pregnant.
Oh and drugs and cigarettes (but I dont do either of those even on special occasions so that was a no brainer lol).
I would not clean cat litter if pg (and had a cat litterer) – because it is dangerous to baby but also being pg would be a good excuse to not do it.
I’m eating Cabana as I write this. I have a medium hot spa with Jaxon every night, have done the hot dog thing and have a can of diet coke every day!
There are so many pregnancy rules out there I sometimes wonder how many of them actually do harm your baby. Look at the women who had children in the olden days and not even looked at any rules – their babies including me turned out fine.
The Hot bath thing I never believed in. My bath water was very hot right through both pregnancies.
Hot Dogs rule I did not even know about till you said it now on your blog – ate them like mad.
I drank a lot of tea/coffee and fizzy drinks.
The runny egg thing I knew about but I don’t like it when my egg is runny, so that rule does not apply to me 🙂
I must admit I stayed away from raw food (except fruit & veg) and had my eggs scrambled because the thought of a hard yellow was very unappealing. I shower so a hot bath was never an issue. I never had anything with caffiene either, only rooibos tea for me. Which I drink usually anyway so it wasn’t an issue.
I agree with Barb, I was super careful about which meds I took. But then I only had panado when I had a headache because I had a healthy pregnancy in that I wasn’t sick at all.
I don’t sushi so that was no problem.
With Victoria I craved LIVER… and I ate it, allot of it. lol
Hey Gina,
I also took loooong baths, with both of my pregnancies and both my boys are fine. I smoked throughout my first pregnancy and my son was born weighing 2kgs. My second son came out weighing 4kgs (I didn’t smoke with him), so I think the low birthweight may apply?
Congrats on your new pregnancy.
May you not vomit too much!
xo
I did eat my biltong, but not too much. I did stay away from liver and sushi. I limited my caffeine to one coffee a day. The rest I pretty much ate whatever I wanted. I did get all weary of cats though. And I kept taking my hot baths but stayed away from the sauna.
I never had any alcohol – not a drop! And I have never smoked.