Preliminary Results

I have only scanned a few chapters of The Panic-Free Pregnancy, but so far I'm very glad it came along. The research scientist in me would have liked to have more citations of the studies the author uses but those may be listed in the back, haven't checked yet.

The author does a nice job of addressing two separate facets of the can-I-eat-this? concern: whether pregnant women are at any higher risk than other people (usually not), and whether the consequences are harmful to baby or any more harmful to women when they're pregnant. The verdict on sushi: mercury is still an issue, so watch what kind of fish you eat and avoid the highest mercury-content fish, but parasites and even E. Coli infections do not pass the placenta and cannot be given to baby.

So far I've read the chapters on food, drugs and alcohol, and most of the chapter on exercise, and I decided to make some changes for the rest of my pregnancy based on what I read. (Keep in mind these are my informed choices, reflecting the level of risk I am comfortable with, I'm not a doctor, YMMV, disclaimer disclaimer etc etc.) I decided:

* sushi once or twice a month is fine (limited because of mercury content). Still avoiding the worst offenders in terms of mercury (swordfish, king mackerel, tile fish, shark), but I never used to eat those types of fish anyway. Also no lox.

* a cocktail or a glass of wine when we go out to dinner (2-3 times/week) is fine.

* no more feta, soft cheeses (brie) or blue cheeses (because of risk of listeria) until I can find more information about whether pasteurization takes care of the bacteria.

* no more peanuts (this is a new one for me) - apparently pregnant women who eat a lot of peanuts have a significantly higher risk of having a baby with a peanut allergy.

So, we went out last night for sushi and a cocktail. We sat at the counter, and the sushi chef was a little disturbed to find out that I was pregnant and eating his sushi with such wild abandon. (I don't know if he even noticed the cocktail...)

An interesting thing about this book is that I noticed when I ordered it that reviews on Amazon were very polarized - most reviews were from pregnant women raving about how this book brings a voice of sanity to the warnings and advice pregnant women get, and a few reviewers lambasted the book for irresponsibly telling pregnant women what they want to hear in order to make money. It may be that I'm just "hearing what I want to hear" and losing my sense of objectivity (and who can blame me when spicy tuna hand rolls hang in the balance?) but I found it interesting that, of the changes I decided to make after skimming this book, half of them are choices to limit what I am eating more than I was already - certainly this book is not a blanket reassurance to go ahead and do whatever you want when pregnant!