6 Things You Should Really Avoid During Pregnancy

Harsh chemical cleaners found in your home can actually be potentially dangerous to your baby’s development. While you can see the physical features (and exclude any abnormalities) with your baby ultrasound, and even better with 3D ultrasound, often any damage of this nature is invisible on the ultrasound pictures.

The vapors that come out when you spray or wet these compounds can be harmful to the developing baby. Once inhaled or otherwise ingested, these vapors could cause damage to the fetal tissues and have a detrimental effect on brain development among other things.

Most of the household chemicals are safe in certain quantities for adults but remember that your baby doesn’t have any defense mechanisms yet to fight or adapt to these outside elements. Any exposure to these could be harmful on many levels, including DNA altering and carcinogenic effects.

Avoid being around fresh paint or paint thinner as well. Try to seek out green cleaners that are based on natural elements – these will not only help our environment but also make your household a much friendlier environment for the baby. This practice holds true once the baby is born as well. 

This is an easy one (hopefully). It has long been known that smoking damages our adult bodies, but it has an even more damaging effect on an unborn child. It is very hard to quit smoking once one starts. And, if pregnancy is an unexpected one, it is very difficult to stop smoking on short notice. But even if you manage to stop, you might still be in an environment where second-hand smoke can still reach you. Perhaps, your partner or relatives still smoke inside the house.

Try to avoid a smoking area during your pregnancy as much as you can, and ask those around you to be mindful of the growing baby. Exposure to smoke can result in spontaneous abortion, pre-term births, low-weight full-term babies, and fetal and infant deaths. On the other hand, alcohol is similarly bad, although it lacks the second-hand effect of smoke.

Expectant mothers should restrain from alcohol primarily due to fetal alcohol syndrome which results in mental underdevelopment, facial malformations, central nervous system dysfunction, and varying degrees of major organ system malfunctions.

Some of these have been evident in 3D ultrasound images, and the situation is very disturbing and can be avoided altogether by being careful. Many Toronto ultrasound clinics can direct you to a specialist to help deal with these issues.

All kinds of pesticides have been shown to have harmful effects on the developing baby. While different kinds of these chemicals affect the baby’s development in different ways, it is a good practice to avoid them altogether as much as possible.

These would include your lawn care products, home pest control products, and foods that have been treated with pesticides and not cleaned well. Even your pet’s flea protection should be avoided.

In general, raising the body temperature might not be a great activity for unborn babies. You shouldn’t use saunas or engage in any other type of activity that would raise your body’s temperature.

Some people ask us if the 4D ultrasound that we use at our 3D ultrasound Toronto studio raises the baby’s temperature, but as we have discussed before the practice is as safe as your anatomical ultrasound done at your doctor’s office.