Pregnancy ::

Archive for Pregnancy

When in utero. . .

Natural Awakenings Magazine has a great article this month titled What to Inspect When you’re Expecting. They list 10 tips for expecting moms to achieve a healthy pregnancy and give their baby the best start possible. What do they suggest? Everything from the basics, like regular prenatal check-ups, to less known hazards like avoiding [...]

Momnesia

I love that. I think moms have been aware of it for generations – eons, perhaps. But USA Today has just published ’scientific’ evidence that it really happens. Oh, wait, did I forget to tell you what it is? That’s because I have a 2 year old, a 3 year old, and any day now [...]

Mercury in fish

Okay, so there are 2 writers here at Broom Huggers – Kathy (a.k.a., mudlark) and Jeana (a.k.a., well, Jeana). As of right now, Kathy is 7 months pregnant and Jeana is newly pregnant, so forgive us if there’s a sudden wave of pregnancy-related posts. It’s kind of what’s on our minds. And don’t worry [...]

Caffeine safe in pregnancy?

Pregnancy is an amazing adventure! One that is filled with so many “do’s and don’t’s” that it can make your head spin (or wait, maybe that’s the nausea?). One of the big discussions on the table right now is how caffeine affects your pregnancy. CNN posted an article on a recent study showing [...]

Iron-cha glad you eat well?

Being an Emergency Medical Technician I could give you the medical explanation of why we need iron and what it does for us . I will spare you the medical jargon and just tell you that we need iron because it is an important component in our blood, which we all [...]

Pesticides and pregnancy

The December issue of Environmental Health Perspectives has an interesting article that links childhood cancers – Acute Leukemia and Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma – to the mother’s use of or exposure to pesticides and insecticides during pregnancy.
It’s based on a study done in France that looked at non-agricultural families. This is the first study to test the [...]

Preggo mommies beware

A new study by the Johns Hopkins Blomberg School of Public Health links non-stick cookware to low birthweight in babies. Additionally, a 2004 study they conducted found PFOA (a carcinogen released when the non-stick cookware is heated) in the umblilical chords of 99% of the 300 babies they tested. (Scary, no?) This could be [...]

Infertility caused by chemicals?

Vogue magazine published an article in their August 2007 issue titled “Infertile Ground” that delves into the potential chemical causes for the alarming rise in infertility rates. In fact, the National Infertility Association quotes that one in eight couples are now infertile, with the rates rising annually. Scary stuff. And for the ladies and gents [...]

More on hand sanitizers

We’ve talked about the dangers of alcohol-based hand sanitizers for children. But we’ve also talked recently about back-to-school germs. In the midst of all this, Germ-X sent me a new product to try that’s just showing up on shelves at Wal Mart. It’s an alcohol-free sanitizer with moisturizer, and it’s so new I can’t even [...]

Autism & pesticides?

There’s been a recent study in California from the Public Health Department that links organochlorine pesticides with a higher occurrence of autism.
Specifically, it tracks the children of women who lived near fields (within 500 meters) that were sprayed with the organochlorine class of pesticides when the women were in their first trimester of pregnancy.
Based on [...]