Eating While Pregnant…What CAN We Eat?
Eating While Pregnant…What CAN We Eat?
Eating while Pregnant….such a natural activity, a necessity even. You are expected to eat whether you are carrying one or two….or more babies. So this article hasn’t much to do with surrogacy BUT as a surrogate mother you may have the uncommon pressure of *people* asking you “what are you eating?” There is an entire grocery store of food now on the no-no list for pregnant women! I have no clue how WE, the baby boomers, the X generation, or the Y generation even made it through the entire 9 months in-utero high on mercury from our mothers over-dosing on canned tuna! What will the iGen’s do? Buy pre-formulated maternity diet packets from Amazon.com?
Read below the things that should be avoided now.
• Raw meat such as sushi, seafood, rare or uncooked beef, or poultry because of the risk of contamination with coliform bacteria, toxoplasmosis, and salmonella.
• Raw eggs, or foods containing raw egg such as Caesars dressing, mayonnaise, homemade ice cream or custard, unpasteurized eggnog, or Hollandaise sauce because raw eggs may be contaminated with salmonella.
• Soft cheese such as blue cheese, feta, Brie, Camambert, and Latin-American soft white cheeses such as queso blanco and queso fresco because they may harbor harmful bacteria.
• Fish containing accumulated levels of mercury in their fatty tissues such as shark, swordfish, king mackerel, tilefish.
• When a pregnant woman consumes large amounts of mercury, her baby may suffer brain damage resulting in developmental delays (for example, delays in learning to walk or talk).
• Fish containing high levels of an industrial pollutant called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in their fatty tissues such as bluefish and striped bass, and freshwater fish such as salmon, pike, trout, walleye from contaminated lakes and rivers. According to the March of Dimes, consumption of large amounts of PCBs by pregnant women is linked to decreased attention, memory, and IQ in their babies. Check with your local Health Department to determine which fish in your area are safe to eat.
And this list keeps growing…. deli meat, liver, (well…I can live without this one!) and artificial sweeteners…where will it end? After reading this new and updated list, posted out there on the Internet by the March of Dimes and the FDA, the only thing left for pregnant women to eat seems to be FORMULA! Yuck.
Surrogate mothers… this is what your IP’s are reading…it doesn’t matter that you ate subs from the local deli when you were pregnant with YOUR children but when you are a surrogate, carrying for someone else THEY want you to eat like they think THEY would eat. No Egg Nog for you over the holidays (unless you cook it), no Caesars salads at the Red Lobster…oh and while at the Red Lobster no Bass or Swordfish and stay away from that shrimp! No colas and no Equal in your ice tea. Wait…doesn’t ice tea have caffeine? NO CAFFEINE! Seriously, there are plenty of healthy choices and eating right is in the best interest of everyone involved. But if your IP’s are questioning your diet or if YOU have questions its best to have a talk with your OB and see what the current guidelines are. Because, trust me, they change!
Please feel free to comment back with any pregnant eating no-no’s that you’ve been informed about by your OB or IVF doctor
