No!

So here's my first pregnancy blog entry. I hope, for everyone's sake, that there won't be too many more on this topic. You, as a reader, I'm sure could find a better blog than this one, if you were interested in reading about a woman's perspective on pregnancy. And me, at 37+ weeks, hopefully won't be pregnant too much longer. Not that it's been a horrible experience, but I haven't "loved every second," as some women seem to claim.

Ted Stevens summed up pregnancy pretty well in this clip. There are so many things that people tell you are "no nos" during pregnancy. For example, the seemingly obvious things like smoking and drinking alcohol, but also undercooked eggs, smoked fish, ibuprofen, cleaning cat litter, etc. After my midwife appointment last week, I'll add rock climbing to the list.

The problem is, not many of these things that are off-limits are backed by science or knowledge. For medication safety, this is for good reason. What mom-to-be is going to volunteer her body and possibly the health of her unborn child to participate in large, well-controlled trials that would provide this much needed data. So all we have are out-dated, happenstance-type case studies. For certain foods, the risks are real, but infections are so rare from ingesting something harboring Listeria, for example, that you wonder how careful you need to be. For rock climbing and other physical activities, the "experts" giving the advice often don't know enough about the activity to give a well-informed opinion. That doesn't stop them from spewing the negativity, though. In the case of my midwife last week, after she stopped staring at me like I had 3 heads when I told her about how great it felt to rock climb at 36 wks, I asked her why she didn't approve. She made up something about the thinness of the walls of the uterus and the dangers of bumping it. I could tell it was BS and if she only knew how many times I bump my belly walking around my apartment, she'd have a heart attack.

So, where have I come to with all of this? I've done the best that I can, to do what I think is right and safe based on the information available to me. I've had a couple sips of wine along the way, I've taken some supposedly safe medications, and yes, I've been rock climbing throughout my pregnancy (without bumping my belly). Hopefully, the kid turns out ok. We'll see in a few weeks.