Congratulations on your pregnancy! You may have been planning your pregnancy for a long time, or perhaps you’ve unexpectedly found yourself pregnant.
Either way, you are now likely looking after yourself and your baby, and searching for what to avoid and what to do during pregnancy.
One of the concerns is what are the hazards in your home, so I’ll share her with you some hazards around the home you should be aware during pregnancy.
5 hazards around the home you should be aware during pregnancy:
1- Sick children:
Be aware that you can also pick up infections that might affect your baby from other small children, such as chickenpox or parvovirus.
Another risk of childhood illness is CMV. Toddlers especially ones at daycare are a hot zone for CMV. When a pregnant woman is exposed to CMV for the first time while she’s pregnant, the virus can turn devastating and cause life-altering side effects in a fetus including microcephaly, hearing loss and mental disabilities.
2- Avoid Smokers:
The health impacts of secondhand smoke exposure during pregnancy are serious. It is associated with some health conditions like:
- Low wight birth and preterm delivery.
- Problems with the placenta ( the source of the baby’s food and oxygen during pregnancy.
- Problems with Lung development in the unborn child.
- Spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) and stillbirth.
- Birth defects like cleft lip or cleft palate.
- Cardiovascular effects.
- sudden infant death (SID).
If you are the smokers, the risk will be double for sure, there are some practical tips to help the pregnant women quit smoking to save here baby’s life.
3- Be aware with pets:
Your cat can cause some trouble during pregnancy. Cat feces can contain a microscopic protozoan called Toxoplasma gondii.
This tiny organism can be passed to the pregnant body in two ways:
- By direct contact: this can happen if the feces are touched while cleaning the litter box or when gardening in an area where a cat has relieved itself.
- By breathing: if the feces are disturbed and the sacs containing the Toxoplasma gondii become airborne, they can be inhaled into the mouth or nose of a person nearby.
Being infected by this organism causes a condition called toxoplasmosis.
If you get toxoplasmosis for the first time during pregnancy, the risk to your baby depends on when you were infected. Infection in early pregnancy is less likely to spread to your baby, but if problems do develop they are likely to be more serious.
While infection later in pregnancy is more likely to spread to your baby, but any problems that develop are likely to be less severe.
Pregnancy complications caused by toxoplasmosis include:
- Preterm birth: Birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy.
- Stillbirth: The death of a baby in the womb before birth but after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
You may not know if you have the infection. Lots of times there are no symptoms. For some people, it feels like the flu. Symptoms can include:
- Achy muscles.
- A headache.
- Fatigue.
- Fever.
- Discomfort.
- Swollen glands.
These symptoms can last for a month or longer. If you think you have toxoplasmosis, talk to your doctor.
4- Avoid lead in pregnancy:
We can’t avoid lead completely because it’s in the air and soil. We all absorb small amounts of it. But children and pregnant women have a higher risk of problems caused by too much lead.
A pregnant woman’s exposure to high lead levels can be hazardous to the baby, because of the lead in mother’s blood can easily cross the placenta to the fetus.
It can affect every system in the body causing subtle problems with behaviour and learning.
If you have an older home or are concerned about lead exposure, get a professional to test your water, the dust in your home, the soil outside, and the paint around your home for lead.
5- Cleaning products, paints and other household chemicals:
Check the labels of these products to make sure there are no safety warnings for pregnant women.
The majority of cleaning products contain toxic substances. Some cleaning supplies contain ingredients associated with an increased risk of congenital anomalies. Especially the heavy duty cleaners, like oven cleaners.
So what can you do? It’s impossible to completely eliminate exposure to these chemicals but you can take steps to reduce your exposure, to protect yourself and your baby:
- Make your own super simple and safe cleaning products: you can use natural ingredients to create your own cleaner, like orange peels. Orange peels can be used for cleaning purposes and it’s completely safe. You can also use the silica gel that comes with new shoes and bags for absorbing unpleasant odours in your home. ( it’s a chemical product but you will not contact directly with it or inhale it, so it’s safer than chemical cleaning products).
- Avoid cleaning products with glycol ethers: which has been associated with miscarriage, decrease male fertility and birth defects.
- Try to avoid products that contain phthalates: because exposure to these substances may increase the risk of congenital reproductive anomalies in male children.
- Avoid spray and aerosol cleaners when possible: that because studies have found that prenatal exposure to spray cleaners may increase the risk of asthma.
- Avoid air fresheners: as prenatal exposure to air fresheners was also associated with an increased risk of asthma and respiratory problems. It also may contain phthalates in their ingredients which is on a high risk during pregnancy as I mentioned earlier.
- Avoid naphthalene in mothballs and toilet deodorants: Some mothballs and toilet deodorants cakes contain a substance called naphthalene. Exposure to very large amounts of naphthalene can cause damage to blood cells, leading to a condition called haemolytic anaemia.
- Ask a friend to help: Don’t be afraid to ask for help! A friend, a husband, a mother or even a hired help may be a better option than exposure to chemical substances including in cleaning products.
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medical discloser: All contents and media on this blog are created and published online for informational purposes only. It not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice.