The Pressure of the Perfect Pregnancy

In some ways media makes you think that pregnancy is a time for fulfilling your every whim, getting foot rubs, eating whatever strikes your fancy, and having strangers be extra nice to you. In reality the pressure to do everything perfectly increases enormously when pregnant. You may go in thinking that now is the time when I can eat mac and cheese guilt free, but during pregnancy there is no such thing as guilt free.

You scrutinize everything you eat knowing that it will effect your baby and its nutrition and development. All around you are people telling you about more things to worry about. Don’t change the cat litter because there could be a toxic disease in there that will effect your baby. But also maybe stop petting your cat because maybe he has tracked some litter onto you on his paws. You can also get this toxic disease from gardening so no touching dirt.

Flu shot because you cannot get a temperature when pregnant or it could harm the baby. No sushi because you could get food poisoning. No frozen yogurt because maybe there could be bacteria on the machines that dispense it.

No sleeping on your back. Also you should sleep on your left side and not your right because the blood flow will be better to the baby. A woman in my mothers-to-be FB group asked if she had harmed her baby by watching a sad movie and crying so hard she struggled to catch her breath.

Are you gaining enough weight but not too much weight? Are you getting protein and iron and folate and calcium in sufficient amounts? Are you flossing your teeth enough? Because gum disease can lead to low birth weight. Too much sugar and you could get gestational diabetes.

Exercise but don’t lift anything too heavy. What counts is too heavy? No one knows.

So much to worry about!

And I want to be a relaxed pregnant lady and not get absurd but then with each of these things there’s the worry that maybe something will harm your baby and you will have to live with knowing you could have prevented it if you had followed all these rules better.