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| Home > Nutrition and Health > Avoiding of harmful Environmental Agents
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| | Avoiding of Harmful Environmental Agents during pregnancy
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Herbicides and Insecticides
Weed and insect killing sprays are harmful to children and pregnant women. Inhaling or ingesting insecticides have been associated with both miscarriage and birth defects. Some insecticide such as 2, 4, 5, T has already been banned because they are known to be harmful.
Radiation
You should avoid radiations during your pregnancy. X-rays for medical and dental diagnosis should be a strict no for you. You should avoid working in areas with high radiation levels especially during your first trimester since radiation interferes with cell division and organ development. Fortunately, most X-rays in early preg-nancy can be avoided or postponed until after the birth.
X-rays are some-times used in late pregnancy
To assess the relationship between the size of the baby`s head and the size of the mother`s pelvis (X-ray pelvimetry)
To find out if there are twin And
To deter-mine the position of the fetus
You may question your phy-sician and find out what information he or she expects to gain from these X-rays and whether the clinical manage-ment would be altered by the results. Generally speaking, such exposure should not be done routinely or if there is reason-able doubt about the benefits.
Saunas and Hot Tubs
Prolonged exposure to the extreme heat found in saunas or hot tubs may raise the mother`s body tem-perature creating a fever that endangers the fetus. The high temperature of a fever may interfere with cell division and may cause birth defects or even fetal death if fever occurs repeat-edly, for extended periods, or at a crucial time in fetal develop-ment. If you cannot do without saunas or hot tubs it would be wise to monitor your oral temperature while you are exposed to the heat. If there is an increase of one degree then it is high time for you to get out and cool down. Ten minutes in a sauna or hot tub is supposed to be a reasonable limit since it does not raise the body temperature. Get out of the sauna if you become uncomfortably hot even if your duration of stay was short. Reducing the temperature of the bath water in the sauna will allow you to use it safely.
Toxoplasmosis
 Toxoplasmosis is a mild infection with cold like symp-toms with no apparent illness at all in adults. However, it can be very seri-ous to the unborn baby, causing possible eye and brain defects and prematurity. Outdoor cats, which eat raw meat such as rats and mice, are the common carriers of toxoplasmosis. The toxoplasmosis organism is very resilient. It passes from the cat in its feces and can survive even a year. You may pick the infection by handling cats or cat litter boxes or by working in soil contaminated with buried cat feces. You may also acquire the disease by eating raw or undercooked meat. To avoid getting toxoplasmosis and passing it on to your unborn baby, Do not forget to wash your hands after handling cats and cat litter boxes, and cook your meat properly. Use gloves while working.
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