Baby Advice a la Mode

Advice pertaining to the health and welfare of mothers-to-be and their babes seems to change as often as fashionable hemlines go up or down. I haven't read any pregnancy/childbirth books lately (why would I?), but I do hear the chatter about all that is correct or not correct these days from my first-and-only-born-now-pregnant daughter.

I remember when I was pregnant way back in 1982-83, ingesting any form of sodium nitrate/nitrite was considered - at the very least - bad form. Call me a bad mommy, but I did eat bacon and hot dogs on occasion when I was preggers. And gave birth to the healthiest little cuss you've ever seen.

One of the big things now is no raw/undercooked fish. Poor daughter loves her sushi but has been staying away from it while pregnant. I do wonder, however, how the Japanese manage to birth healthy babies while continuing to consume sushi and sashimi with a bun in the oven. Hmm.

And the safety measures built into toys, furniture, and clothing have changed as well. Too many to name here. Again, I wonder how we all managed to survive the old stuff, eh?

My advice to my daughter and any other pregnant lass out there is this: By all means be as safe and healthy as you can possibly be for yourself and your baby. Eat right, get some exercise, and put away all the enticing breakables until your child is 18.

However. Women have been giving birth for eons, eating everything from dirt to raw wild animals and putting their precious darlings in holes dug in the ground, rickety cradles, and baby beds with slats spaced more than what is now considered safe. Guess what? Civilization has endured! Babies have thrived!

One of my favorite TV shows is "Mad Men." Pregnant character Betty Draper smoked and drank (real liquor, not just wine) and then gave birth to a healthy baby boy. That's the way it was in the 50's and 60's. I certainly do not advocate smoking and drinking during pregnancy, but you know what? Millions and millions of perfectly healthy babes (Baby Boomers, anyone?) were born of mothers who chain-smoked, ate bacon, and drank cocktails throughout those nine months. We're smarter now (I hope), but babies are tougher than we give them credit for.

Do what seems right to you. Trust me, by the time your own sweet children are bearing your grandchildren, the rules will have changed yet again. No telling what baby furniture will look like in 30-40 years. And yet, your little sweetums will make it just fine in whatever the current fashion of safety might be.

Relax. This baby business ain't new.