Healthy Baby Healthy Planet

5 ways to have a green pregnancy

Pregnancy, especially your first, upends your life in unexpected ways. Motherhood looms and you’re madly trying to figure out how to give your baby the healthiest start. So it’s no surprise when you also find yourself evaluating the health of the world your infant is about to enter.

“It’s pretty universal, in my experience,” says Gina Solomon, M.D., M.P.H., associate director of the pediatric environmental health specialty unit at the University of California, San Francisco, and senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit environmental action group. “Women are confronting some critical decisions when they’re pregnant.”

Here are five ways you can do right by yourself, your baby and the planet when you’re pregnant.

#1 Get Wise To Water
One of the first rules of a healthy pregnancy is to stay hydrated. “You need to drink for two while you’re expecting,” says Solomon. Your blood volume increases dramatically, and you’re flushing two people’s waste through your kidneys. Meanwhile, your fetus constantly swallows the amniotic fluid and pees in it. To keep “refreshing” that fluid, you need liquids throughout the day.

How to get them? Probably not from swigging lattes because caffeine is a real concern: Drinking more than 300 milligrams daily, or the amount in about two cups of java, has been associated with miscarriage in early pregnancy. Nor should you rely on diet sodas, which contain artificial sweeteners, or regular sodas and processed fruit juices, which are loaded with sugar calories.

Good old-fashioned water is best, and you shouldn’t buy it in plastic bottles. Such water is seldom cleaner than tap, it’s not as well-regulated, and some brands are municipal water with a fancy label. Worse, in the U.S., only a quarter of those bottles are recycled!

Moms-to-be are especially vulnerable to water-borne contaminants, however, and because no water is perfectly clean, you’ll probably need a kitchen filter. But before you buy one, learn what’s in your tap water. “City dwellers usually find that a carbon filter, such as a Brita or PUR pitcher or faucet attachment, is adequate,” says Solomon. If you live in an area with serious water-quality problems, as in some rural regions, you may need a filter that can handle such pollutants as pesticides, solvents and arsenic. “Reverse osmosis devices work, but they’re expensive and waste water, so check to see if they’re necessary,” Solomon says. Call your water utility, or visit its website for a look at its consumer confidence report (CCR). Read what it says under “detection” to see which contaminants are found in your water. Lead levels can vary dramatically from house to house, so you also might want to test for lead. For information on filters and testing, visit nrdc.org/water/drinking/gfilters.asp.

When you drink plenty of safe water:

YOU are less likely to suffer from constipation, fatigue, hemorrhoids and bladder infections. Being well-hydrated also prevents water retention.

YOUR BABY is exposed to fewer water-borne contaminants and toxins. Because dehydration can cause contractions, the risk of premature birth is lower.

THE PLANET will be less polluted, with fewer plastic bottles floating in its rivers and oceans.  

#2 Find The Fresh Stuff
At first glance, the ideal green diet looks simple: Choose what’s organic, in season and locally grown. “But that’s not always possible, especially if you’re pregnant during winter in the Northeast,” says Elizabeth Ward, R.D., author of Expect the Best: Your Guide to Healthy Eating Before, During & After Pregnancy (Wiley). “You need to strike a balance between saving the Earth and eating what’s right for you and your baby.” That means focusing on fruits, vegetables and grain products fortified with folic acid and iron, cutting back on processed foods and upgrading to environmentally sustainable foods when you can.

“There are tremendous benefits to eating organic foods during pregnancy,” says Ward. They’re grown without pesticides, and some studies even show they’re higher in nutrients. Locally grown, seasonal foods may also be more nutritious, if only because they’re fresher—and, the Earth also benefits, as fewer fossil fuels are used to transport them. But organic can be costly, and not everyone can get herself to a farmers market where local food is plentiful.

“It’s better to eat healthy foods that are conventionally grown than to skimp on them because you’re afraid of how they’re produced,” Ward says. “No prenatal supplement can supply the phytonutrients you get from fresh fruits and vegetables, even if they come all the way from Chile.” Or you can go organic only for produce that otherwise would test high on the pesticide scale, such as apples, peaches and bell peppers. (For a list of the fruits and vegetables with the highest pesticide loads, also known as “the dirty dozen,” as well as the lowest, visit fitpregnancy.com/goinggreen.)

Getting your daily protein in an eco-friendly way is another challenge. Many fish that are great sources of protein—and of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), one of the omega-3 fatty acids essential to fetal brain development—also contain mercury, a heavy metal that can endanger a fetus. Experts recommend you eat fish no more than twice a week; small, low-mercury species, such as salmon, sardines, mussels, anchovies and oysters, are best. Boost your omega-3s with other foods rich in fatty acids, including walnuts, canola oil and flaxseed, and with fish oil supplements or vegetarian supplements produced from algae.

Pay attention to your meat purchases. You can trust that certified organic beef and poultry come from animals that were raised on 100-percent organic feed and were never given hormones or antibiotics, but you’ll pay more for the privilege, Ward says. Locally produced milk, meat and poultry are fine, as long as the dairy or farm has a reputation for cleanliness. Or you can cut back. Industrial-scale meat production contributes to 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases—even more than transportation! If you limit meat consumption for health or environmental reasons, add more beans, legumes and nuts to your diet, along with eggs from locally raised chickens.

When you eat green:

YOU find it easier to keep your weight gain at the recommended level, which lowers your risk for gestational diabetes, high blood pressure and a too-big baby.

YOUR BABY is exposed to fewer pesticides and drug residues, a gift to his or her developing neurological system.

THE PLANET experiences less global warming, and fewer harmful, toxic chemicals used to farm conventionally grown foods will poison our natural world.