But Can I.....?

I felt like when I got pregnant, I was suddenly living in a different world. It felt like one day I was just going about my life as usual, and the next, after those two little pink lines appeared, there are all these new rules I had to follow.

When I started reading all the dos and don'ts of pregnancy (especially the first trimester), I felt overwhelmed. I felt like I was never going to be able to do everything right and I worried about how each thing I did (or didn't do) affected this tiny new person.

All that worry is a heavy weight to carry. And that's why I'm so thankful my group of maternity doctors came along when they did. They were a lovely group of women, several of them pregnant or with their own young children, so they got it. They understood the worry and the uncertainty and I was completely grateful for their common sense approach when it came to sorting through all the information out there. They always made me feel like I should trust myself and that (with a few exceptions) the things I decided to do or not do would all be fine and so would my baby. I felt about a thousand times calmer after seeing them.

Here are a few of the things from the early weeks that helped me the most:

No cheese or honey? Lots of books tell you to stay away from soft cheese and honey. What they really mean is to stay away from things that are un-pasteurized. In Canada, almost all dairy products you get are pasteurized (they say on the packaging if they are not). As long as they are, you're fine. Honey is the same thing -- look for one that says pasteurized.

How should I sleep? However you're comfortable. I loved that my doctors helped me feel confident in my body's ability to care for a baby. They told me my body would tell me when I should stop something, and they were right. I slept on my tummy until it wasn't comfortable anymore (they said that's what would happen, and it did). They also said that after about 20 weeks, I shouldn't sleep flat on my back (your belly can put too much pressure on different blood vessels and can make your legs feel numb, etc). But guess what? Your body knows that. If you sleep on your back too long, you wake up. Pretty cool.

Deli meats: You want them? Heat them up. Same with hot dogs.

Sushi: my doctor (who was also pregnant at the time) told us she loved California rolls so much, she couldn't give them up. So she picked a sushi place she trusted, stayed away from raw fish, and kept on eating it all the way through her pregnancy.

Mother risk: a little pamphlet you can get at drug stores that talks about all the medications that are safe (and ones that aren't) when you're pregnant. You can also find that information online at www.motherrisk.org (but be warned -- there's A LOT of info there!)

Most of all, what i appreciated was my doctors were big on being educated about these sorts of things and then choosing how you wanted to live and trying not to obsess over every choice you make. What a different that made for me.