On a personal note, I apologize for not writing more frequently. This pregnancy is making me tired and sick, and I have a hard time just functioning normally at the moment. Hopefully, the “fun” part of pregnancy will start soon. I’m hoping and looking forward to it.

I wanted to write today to share an article from the New York Times about a climate change bill that was killed in the Senate. Not that it mattered that it was killed in the Senate because the President already promised to not sign it (I’m counting down the days until the next inauguration). I just keep wondering WHEN in the world is our government going to do something - ANYTHING - to get our country moving into the greener way of life. I’m terrified to see what it will take for them to actually make any positive changes.

After Verbal Fire, Senate Effectively Kills Climate Change Bill

For those of us who like to make our own decisions and do our own research about what goes into our bodies while pregnant, there is a great website that provides safety information about tons of prescription and over the counter drugs. The website is called SafeFetus.com.

You can search or browse for individual drugs. The listing provides the risk category class, indication, fetal risk, breast feeding risks, and other names for the drug.

I think this is a great resource for women who want to make their own choices about their risks vs. benefits. It allows us to make decisions about our own health during pregnancy. Since being pregnant is usually a rare occurrence in our lives, we often feel like we need to rely on a “professional” to tell us what to do. SafeFetus.com is just one tool that gives the power back to us.

I learned something the other day that I would have never even considered during my pregnancy. Essential oils are potentially harmful. I know that essential oils can be very powerful, but it just never crossed my mind that something so “natural” could be harmful during my pregnancy. Then I came across this article, which explains that certain essential oils, particularly tea tree oil and lavender, can affect hormones. I’ve been trying to stay away from phthalates, parabens, and BPA, and it never even crossed my mind that essential oils could have a similar harmful effect.

A friend of mine knows a lot about essential oils, so I asked her what she thought. After all, I’ve been using a lavender soap and a body oil with lavender. She told me that obviously, I can’t change the past, but advised that I probably want to go fragrance free from now on. She also assured me that the lavender is going to be very diluted once its mixed into other products. She then directed me to the National Associations for Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA), which has an excellent FAQ page about pregnancy and essential oils.

While the NAHA does say that essential oils in diluted form are probably okay, due to lack of evidence or proof, the association recommends not using essential oils at all during pregnancy. I believe they are trying to err on the safe side, but regardless, I was so surprised to read this. I’m erring on the safe side during my pregnancy anyways, so its fragrance free for me from here on out. If you are concerned about any products you are using, you might contact the company and ask if its safe to use during pregnancy. If you do switch to fragrance free, make sure that it is actually free from fragrance. Some companies actually use another fragrance to make it smell “fragrance free.”

Someone Spoil Me is a website devoted to guiding people towards giving stylish gifts. My favorite thing about the site is the amount of organic gifts available, especially for babies, including organic clothes, toys, and gear.

If you still haven’t found a gift for your mom (or for yourself) for Mother’s Day, you might check out their Organic Moms Mother’s Day Gift Guide. I know I would love a few things on there!

I know this topic has been beat into the ground lately, but I am still trying to get some good information about it. The Diane Rehm Show devoted an entire hour to it this week, which included discussion from someone who represents an association for plastics (and consequently, BPA), scientists and researchers, someone from the Toxicology Program and the health minister from Canada (Canada recently banned BPA-containing products).

I had a hard time discerning who said what so forgive me for that. One person did say that for fetuses and infants, “exposure during development could lead to diseases later in life.” This is really enough for me to stop consuming products containing BPA, at the very least, while I’m pregnant. These guests discussed the potential problems BPA could cause including neurological damage, cancer, and hormonal disruptions.

I thought the discussion about the FDA was particularly interesting because I have absolutely no faith in the FDA. Ironically (or not), the FDA does not recommend that ANYONE stop using BPA. I’m guessing “anyone” would include pregnant women or babies. Unfortunately, this is despite the research discussed on this show that continued to provide evidence that BPA is the most harmful to fetuses and babies. The representative from the American Chemistry Council said that he thinks consumers need to rely more on government agencies like the FDA to tell them what is safe and what isn’t safe, and to basically stop making this decision based on their own research. So, he pretty much implied that we are all too stupid to make decisions for ourselves. Oh, and by the way, the American Chemistry Council is also the group that created the horrible website, phthalates.org, intended to convince Americans that phthalates in products are “fun” and save our lives. Diane Rehm challenged him on this and told him that many Americans don’t trust government agencies because they continue to deceive us. Of course, the guy did not have a reasonable answer.

I was also interested to learn that BPA is also in cosmetics! I don’t know which ones or how they get there, but I will definitely look into that.

It was really a great show, and I encourage everyone to listen to it because my brief explanation here does not give the discussion justice. Its about 51 minutes long, but worth every minute. Here is the link.

While many events taking place on Earth Day directly benefit the Earth (duh!), this list is about the changes a mom-to-be, whether trying to conceive, might conceive one day, or has already conceived, should make to immediately benefit her and her baby-to-be. Although the greater impact will definitely have positive effects on this planet, the immediate effects will improve the environment of your womb.

In no particular order:

1. Educate yourself about mercury risks and take steps to reduce your mercury intake. A great resource for this information is gotmercury.org and Oceans Alive. In the process of reducing your mercury exposure, don’t forget about the importance of DHA for a developing baby.

2. Reduce or eliminate paraben and phthalate exposure from personal care products. Two good sources for safe personal care products is Nine Stones and Saffron Rouge.

3. Avoid Bisphenol-A (BPA), which is found in hard plastics like polycarbonate. Maybe more importantly during pregnancy, it’s also found in canned foods. BPA has estrogen-like properties and mimics the hormone in your body.

4. Stop using toxic cleaners, laundry detergents, and dish washing soaps, and use natural homemade cleaners or non-toxic commercial alternatives. You can find most of these commercial alternatives at your local grocery store or health food store. Use an oxygen bleach rather than chlorine bleach. Some of the cleaners I like to use are Maggie’s Soap Nuts and Biokleen for my laundry, Ecover or Seventh Generation for my dishwasher, and I make all of my other cleaners - mostly just from vinegar, baking soda, and castile soap.  

5. Eat organic. I have personally found it nearly impossible to eat everything organic. Well, everything that I want to eat anyways. There is a list of 12 of the most important fruits and veggies to eat organic (often called The Dirty Dozen), though, and if you can manage to buy these products in the organic version, you can greatly reduce your exposure to pesticides:

• peaches
• apples
• pears
• winter squash
• green beans
• grapes
• strawberries
• raspberries
• spinach
• potatoes
• tomatoes
• cantaloupe

 There are, of course, more changes to make when having a baby, but these were the ones that were important to me regarding the environment. I highly encourage eating local to increase healthy choices and also lower your impact on the environment.

Happy Earth Day everyone!

Last week, I was lucky to have the opportunity to hear Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speak about the environment. It was a great talk and very inspiring!

One of my favorite things he said was “nature is the infrastructure of our communities.” This statement is so true, and something I think many people overlook in their rebellion against the green movement. Kennedy spoke a lot about the impact the environment has on our future generations, which is very important to me and is why I’m writing this blog (and probably why you are reading it).

With the exception of tomorrow, I’ll be writing several posts about topics he covered including mercury levels in child-bearing-age women, asthma, and coal use for energy.

I bought his book, Crimes Against Nature. I have only skimmed it so far, but it looks very interesting. If it covers the topics he spoke about, I can guarantee its interesting! I also bought my baby-to-be his children’s book, which he signed, called Joshua Chamberlain and the American Civil War. I thought it was fun that my baby’s first present from me is from an environmentalist

Kennedy often mentioned the organization he’s involved with, Riverkeeper, which is part of the wider organization, Waterkeeper Alliance. Both websites are full of great information and resources.

Are you throwing a baby shower or preparing for your own? The Arbor Day Foundation has a great gift programwhere you can buy gift trees in bulk for occasions like a baby shower. The program even allows you to customize the label. I think these would be great for baby shower favors to give to your guests. You might ask them to plant the tree on the day the baby is born. What better way to honor your baby’s birth than to help make his environment a little bit greener.  

The Department of Health and Human Services Toxicology Program released an evaluation on Bisphenol-A (BPA), noting the validity of concerns about hormone disruption from the chemical, which can lead to prostate cancer, breast cancer, and early-onset puberty, among other complications. Apparently, these findings are still not good enough reason for the FDA to consider BPA harmful (reason #4,392 not to trust the FDA), but any concern about this chemical is too much for me.

I’ve already eliminated hard plastics, and I use the stainless steel Klean Kanteen (they use no lining like the aluminum options) as my reusable water bottle. It is a little bit more expensive than the other options, but it is an amazing product. I use it everyday, and have certainly gotten my money’s worth. The bad thing about Klean Kanteen is that its made in China, although the company does defend itself in that regard.

The trouble I am having when avoiding BPA is eating canned food. I eat a lot of beans, and most of them come from cans. I do buy the dried versions, but they usually sit in my pantry for months. I never seem to find the time to cook them. However, now is probably the time for me to just figure it out, and drop the canned version all together. I hate to think I’m passing BPA to my unborn child.

Of course, we can’t forget about replacing the BPA-containing hard plastic bottles with glass bottles. It seems many have already gotten the message because glass bottle sales have increased dramatically.

Since the highest concentrations of BPA are found in babies and children, doing whatever we can to reduce their expose is critical.

I just wanted to write and apologize because my posts have been so few and far between lately. I promise that I haven’t forgotten about this! I hope to be back in writing/research mode soon.