The Current List of Foods to Avoid in Pregnancy:
Raw Meat including sushi or partially cooked steaks
Soft Cheeses: brie, feta, Camembert, bleu cheese, queso blanco, queso fresco, cream cheese
Raw Eggs: batters and doughs, homemade ice cream, custard, mayonnaise, egg nog
Fish high in mercury
Fish containing PCBs: bluefish, bass, salmon, trout, pike, walleye
Deli Meats, including hot dogs
Liver
Caffeine
Alcohol

Back when my mother, her friends, and my aunties were having babies (really, not that long ago), this list was much much shorter. Now, it seems ridiculously long, and this list includes no mention of foods containing pesticides, growth hormones, or antibiotics. Honestly, every yummy thing seems to be off the list! What’s more, the pregnancy police (also known as other pregnant people, your friends, and anyone who sees you consume or purchase any of these foods) are oh so willing to slap your hand away from each potential infraction. Feta in that salad? Bah, toss it away!

Now, I am wholly in support of protecting our fetuses and our own compromised immune systems in pregnancy. I’ve been ill in pregnancy, and I’ll attest, it’s a million times more miserable than the same illness before pregnancy: this body’s defenses are tuned down low so as not to attack that little alien baby! But this list of no-nos is too extreme for me.

Since I first discovered as a very small child the joys of licking out that bowl of cookie dough, raw eggs have never phased me. Those doughs, batters, ice creams, and egg nogs are delicious! And they’ve never made me sick, nor do I know of anyone made sick by them. The same goes for deli meats and soft cheeses. Around here, we don’t eat much fish or meat, so those minuscule levels don’t concern me. And though caffeine (including chocolate) meant cramping and nausea until well into the second trimester, now I consume as much as I want (which means a cup or two every few days). I’m eating and drinking what I want.

Pregnancy police–in this case, everyone–really lose their minds over alcohol. I was frowned at the other day when I walked into the liquor store with my husband! (I guess I look pregnant now!!) But–gasp–a bit of alcohol doesn’t bother me either. All the research done about the affects of alcohol on a fetus in pregnancy concerns a mother who consumes a lot of the stuff; none even look at those of us who have a half or whole glass every few weeks. But if even midwives recommend a glass from time to time, especially to calm a crampy uterus or tense mama, then I’m not worried. Little Do won’t be brain dead from the few beers I’ve had in the last six months.

I’ll take my chances, pregnancy police be damned.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 16th, 2011 at 5:21 pm and is filed under Journey to Mamahood. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.