Popular Foods, Beverages and Commonly Used Products Cause Unhealthy Pregnancies, Study Finds

June 29, 2009 - PRLog -- Pregnant women beware! According to several new studies, genes aren’t the only indicator of whether your child will be tall or short, nervous or calm, robust or sluggish. Increasingly researchers are pointing to the mother’s diet as having a determining role on an unborn baby’s development. The dangerous affects of alcohol, drug use (both legal and illegal) and cigarettes have already been well reported, but now scientists are adding caffeinated products including tea, coffee, soft drinks, energy drinks, and chocolate to the list as well as raw meat, deli meat, raw seafood, tuna, unpasteurized milk, unwashed vegetables, and soft cheese. Some experts also suggest expecting mothers to avoid artificial sweeteners found in diet sodas, changing the litter box and several brands of skin lotions and skin medications.

“Given the incredible number of complicated steps needed to go from a simple fertilized egg to a complex, trillion-celled baby complete with sparkling eyes, 20 fingers and toes, and a pumping heart, it's no wonder that mother and baby work together to keep potentially harmful substances out of the developing system,” said Dr. Harold J. DeMonaco, of Massachusetts General Hospital.  “The placenta acts much like the blood/brain barrier, allowing nutrients and wastes to cross while keeping out most unfamiliar substances, but it isn't quite as good a barrier.”  

Caffeinated products, which for years were considered fine in moderation,  have increasingly come under the spotlight after a recent study conducted by the British Medical Journal sighted them as playing a role in miscarriages and low body weight. And although very few bacteria can cross the placenta, unfortunately those found in raw meat, cat feces and contaminated fruit and vegetables (coliform bacteria, toxoplasmosis, and salmonella) do.

So what is a hundred percent safe and nutritious for your growing baby? According to the American Pregnancy Association, one of the best things you can consume on a regular basis is herbal tea. There are a number of teas labeled as “Pregnancy Teas” that are considered to be good for pregnancy. Many midwives and professionals who work with herbs believe that the regular consumption of these teas may help prevent pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia, preterm labor, prolonged labor, and postpartum hemorrhage while providing the baby with important minerals and vitamins.

Medical studies have shown that herbal teas with red raspberry leaf can be consumed safely during pregnancy and can decrease the length of labor and decrease the number of interventions used such as artificial rupture of membranes (AROM), assisted delivery, and cesarean delivery. Red raspberry leaf also seems to help prevent pregnancies from pre-or post-term gestation (delivering too early or too late).

But here again, expecting mothers have to be especially careful about what teas they consume and where they buy those teas from. A recent study by Notre Dame University showed dangerous levels of toxins and heavy metals were present in "surprisingly high quantities" in common herbal products, all of which can seriously cause problems for your developing child. According to Sarah Richards of http://www.Homegrownherbandtea.com, it is very important to know where your tea was farmed and whether it meets FDA approved ingredients for pregnant moms.

“Buy your tea from a small, trusted grower,” she says. “If it comes in a box wrapped in shrink wrap and manufactured by a machine, I’d avoid it.”

Richards, who hand blends her teas from fresh ingredients and provides a range of teas for lactation, new borns and pregnancy, encourages all mothers to check with their midwife or consult their doctor before starting any herbal tea regiment. Her own herbal teas and formulations have been endorsed by medical professionals and use only organic ingredients grown under strict US farming standards and can be found at http://www.homegrowntea.com

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http://homegrowntea.com featured in this Natural Health article is located in Portland, Maine. It specializes in natural, herbal teas hand blended and organically grown.