Five Things You MUST Not Take When You Are Pregnant, If You Want Your Baby Alive

[quote author=tomnjerry post=50134103]DO YOU like to entertain? Most people do. Often they are willing to make special arrangements for the comfort and happiness of their guests, perhaps by cooking a special meal, or by arranging a sight-seeing trip.

If you are a pregnant woman, you have inside your body a helpless “guest” with very special needs. Like any guest, the embryo, or fetus, inside you deserves special attention. Indeed, a thoughtless lack of proper “hospitality” for the unborn can have permanent, tragic consequences. On the other hand, proper care for your little “guest” before birth can lead to a fine start in life.

What are some dangers pregnant women should be alert to? There are many, perhaps more than you ever realized. And new threats to the unborn are constantly being discovered. Here are some things to watch out for:

CAFFEINE

This is found in coffee, tea, colas, and chocolate. Caffeine has been shown to cause birth defects, such as missing toes, in animals. “If the usual safety precautions respecting drugs were adopted with respect to caffeine, bags of coffee would be required to bear a label warning pregnant women to consume no more than a small fraction of a cup each day.”—Addiction Research Foundation, Toronto, Canada.

In a study of 1,529 pregnant women, researchers from the University of Washington found that high caffeine use was “tied to a significantly higher incidence of breech births as well as to greater numbers of miscarriages or fetal deaths in the mothers’ previous pregnancies.”—Medical World News.

“Hundreds of thousands of pregnant women are consuming enough caffeine from coffee and tea to cause thousands of congenitally deformed children to be born each year.”—Center for Science in the Public Interest.

ASPIRIN (ASA).

“Whatever headaches accompany the last months of pregnancy, it’s best to forgo aspirin.” (Medical World News) What’s wrong with aspirin? In one study, when mothers took aspirin late in pregnancy and then had premature births, 70 percent of those babies suffered from bleeding inside the skull (intracranial hemorrhage), a much higher figure than for women not taking aspirin.

“I’d say flatly aspirin is contraindicated,” during the last three months of pregnancy.—Dr. Carol M. Rumack, professor of radiology and pediatrics.

TRANQUILIZERS

Valium, Miltown, Librium and others. Here is what the makers of Valium tell doctors in their literature: “Use of minor tranquilizers during the first trimester should almost always be avoided because of increased risk of congenital malformations, as suggested in several studies.” In other words, taking tranquilizers during pregnancy can cause birth defects. Don’t do it if you are concerned about the future happiness of your little “guest.”

How serious is the risk? A study of 20,000 women by researchers at the University of California concluded that babies born to women taking Librium or Miltown early in pregnancy suffered six times as many birth defects as did the offspring of women taking no medication.

BARBITURATES

This may also cause birth defects. These include drugs like Seconal, Nembutal, Amytal, Luminal and Tuinal. “Studies suggest an association between the use of certain sedative hypnotic drugs during pregnancy and various congenital defects in the offspring of users.”—Addiction Research Foundation, Toronto, Canada.

ALCOHOL

This is a substance that even in moderate amounts may be dangerous to the fetus. “Heavy drinking, and perhaps even moderate drinking, by pregnant women can endanger their unborn children. The fetal alcohol syndrome, characterized by mental retardation and other abnormalities, has been identified among some children of alcoholic women. Birth defects have also been observed in the offspring of some women who drank only two ounces of alcohol daily during pregnancy. Decreased birth weight (often associated with increased risk to the newborn) has also been observed among the children of some women who drink two drinks per day during pregnancy, and in one study there was evidence of an association between two drinks a week and miscarriages.”—Science News.

If drinking during pregnancy is so dangerous, how is it that nobody said so before? Scientists are asking the same question. “All reports suggest fetal alcohol syndrome is exceedingly common,” writes Harvard University pediatrics professor Mary Ellen Avery. “It is incredible that we missed it so long when it’s such an important problem.”

“We are not talking about skid row alcoholics,” observes a Seattle, Washington, researcher. “We’re talking about ordinary women.”

“As fetal-alcohol research continued, it became evident that no amount of alcohol could be called safe during a woman’s pregnancy.”—Dr. Ruth Little, Director, Pregnancy and Health Program, University of Washington School of Medicine.

The message is clear. If you are pregnant and want to play it safe, don’t drink. If you invited someone for dinner, and he declined to drink, saying that alcohol was bad for his health, would you force him? Why force the “guest” in your womb to drink when it could damage him for life?

SMOKING
Quit smoking
This is dangerous to your baby for a number of reasons.

Smoking before pregnancy increases the risk of placenta praevia, a condition in which the placenta is attached abnormally low in the womb, causing dangerous complications during labor and birth, according to a recent study of 50,000 pregnancies.

Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of crib death by 52 percent, independently of all other factors, according to the same study.

“Babies born to mothers who smoke during pregnancy weigh less than those of non-smoking mothers. The extent of lower birth rate is directly related to the number of cigarettes smoked.”—Lancet.

What causes this? “Lack of oxygen is believed to be the chief reason,” says Dr. James Wright of Australia. When you smoke, some of the hemoglobin in your blood is “fooled” into carrying carbon monoxide, which is a poisonous gas, instead of oxygen. According to a Wales study, women who quit smoking even 48 hours before giving birth increased available oxygen in their blood by 8 percent.

Most people realize that serious health problems, such as venereal disease or drug addiction, are bad for their unborn children. But did you realize that things you may take for granted—coffee, aspirin, tranquilizers, junk food, many common drugs, alcohol and smoking—can also be dangerous?

Giving up these things, at least for the duration of your pregnancy, may require self-control, but isn’t it worth it? If you wait until your baby is born to show that you love it that could be too late. Why not start showing that self-sacrificing love as soon as the decision is made to have a baby?

http://toralife.com/five-things-you-must-not-take-when-you-are-pregnant-if-you-want-your-baby-alive/
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some will still not hear