Pregnant women take pains to educate themselves about what should go in their bodies, and what shouldn’t. They know about the importance of getting folic acid, eating a healthy diet, and avoiding certain indulgences like booze, caffeine, and sushi.
But this is real life, not a text book! So how many of us are actually following the letter of the law? How many of us are just following the spirit of the professionals’ recommendations? And how many of us are blowing off doctors’ orders altogether?
Well, I’ll be the first to confess: As a first-time mom in the high-risk category (since I was carrying twins), I played things pretty safe during my pregancy last year. I avoided unpasteurized cheese and juice. I said no to undercooked eggs on our babymoon in Italy, Spain, and France. And because I’m a vegetarian, that left little else to eat apart from bread and butter!
That said, I typically drank an eight-ounce cup of coffee daily, per my doctor’s OK. And sometimes I even had a sip—or a couple of sips—from someone else’s wine glass at the table (though I never ordered my own!).
Does my pregnancy-diet behavior sound martyrish to you… or scandalous? We want to hear how you really eat during pregnancy… so that we can report the truth of what goes on back to you!
We’re surveying pregnant women and moms of babies under age one about what they really ate during pregnancy. We want to know about the good, the bad, the calories, the healthy… and the really unhealthy. We want to know how seriously you took recommendations about vegetables and calcium and folate. And of course, we also want to know if you bent (or broke!) rules against eating sushi and rare burgers. How about pregnancy cravings—did you give in? Did you have the occasional cocktail? And did you take your prenatal vitamins without fail, or just whenever you remembered?
Please tell us (anonymously, of course)! Click here for the survey, which will be live until May 12. (And tell a friend!)
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Alesandra Dubin is a new twin mom. She’s also a Los Angeles-based writer and the founder of lifestyle blog Homebody in Motion. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and Twitter.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
