Household Activities to Avoid During Pregnancy

Being pregnant comes with a list of dos and don’ts. Some are encouraged to exercise while you’re told to avoid others. Despite the million and one things that need doing, do you know which household activities to avoid during pregnancy?

When you’re pregnant, any activity that involves standing for prolonged periods, bending, or lifting should be avoided. Don’t carry heavy objects and avoid climbing stairs, stools, or balancing on ladders. To protect your unborn baby, stay away from harsh cleaning chemicals, pesticides, and cat litter.

You’ll gain considerable weight during pregnancy, which calls for a readjustment in lifestyle. Difficulty maneuvering and baby bump exhaustion can also leave you straining to keep up with your household chores. Therefore, I’ve put together a shortlist of activities to avoid doing within your house when pregnant.

Why Should I Avoid Certain Household Activities during Pregnancy?

Being pregnant doesn’t mean you lay around all day, not lifting a finger. But while most household activities are safe during pregnancy, you must avoid others. For a healthy baby, you can delegate some errands while tackling a few as a means to keep fit. You’ll maintain cleanliness by changing your approach to tasks, such as dishwashing or doing the laundry.

Avoid exposure to most cleaning products during pregnancy and stay away from the toxic fumes of ant or roach killers. The secret is to not over-exert in the safe activities allowed, striking a balance between risks for your unborn baby and staying sedentary. Your body’s ligaments, joints, and muscles have been softened by hormones when pregnant so, listen to your body.

Refrain from tasks that exhaust or make you feel sick. Take multiple breathers in between climbing stairs or cutting up those vegetables. Household activities to avoid during pregnancy include;

Anything That Involves Heavy Lifting

Seeing as you’re pregnant and heavy, you should avoid any strain on your spine, belly, and pelvis. Engaging in household activities where you have to lift heavy things places your pregnancy at risk. You may start experiencing leg cramps and back pain, and severe cases can induce early labor.

Leave that bag of groceries, piece of furniture, or basket full of laundry for someone else to lift. You can also divide stuff into smaller, more manageable chunks and take your time moving or arranging them. Exerting your pelvic floor and abdominal muscles can cause a rapture of the amniotic sac and bleeding.

Every Task That Requires Standing for Prolonged Periods

Activities to avoid overdoing include Cooking, cutting vegetables, hand-washing a mountain of dishes, or arranging flowers. These household chores can have you standing for a long time, which isn’t recommended during pregnancy. Instead, do tasks while seated in a more comfortable position to avoid causing strain to your legs and back.

If you can’t approach such tasks seated, ask your husband or someone else for help. You can also partition large jobs into manageable chunks and stop whenever you feel tired. Make sure you’re not standing for more than 10 minutes at a time.

Cleaning That Strains Your Back and Legs

One household task that takes a lot of your energy is cleaning, and not all types of these chores are harmful to your pregnancy. You can sweep, mop, wipe or vacuum, as long as you’re in a comfortable position. Use long handles on brooms or mops and avoid bending, lifting, fast movements, and over-exerting yourself.

Take multiple breaks or let someone else do them instead if household activities have to get completed. Avoid taking on huge tasks or managing them in chunks to avoid low baby birth weights and other pregnancy defects.

Using Harsh Chemicals during Pregnancy

Your unborn baby absorbs most of what you come into contact with, including harsh cleaning or other household chemicals. To safely clean your house during pregnancy, use natural products like vinegar, baking powder, or lemon juice instead.

While you can wear gloves and a mask or keep the area well ventilated, it’s best to avoid the stronger ones. Ingredients of cleaning and pest or fungal control you should stay on the lookout for include;

Phthalates

Exposure to phthalates, an ingredient of most scented cleaning products, is associated with reproductive anomalies such as male infertility. Cleaner manufacturers don’t list these harmful microparticles as part of their items but avoid fragrance.

Glycol Ethers

Often found in household oven cleaners, glycol ethers are linked to occurrences of congenital disabilities, decreased male fertility, and miscarriages. You’ll see products listing these toxic chemicals as methoxydiglycol or DEGME and 2-butoxyethanol or EGBE.

Aerosol Sprays and Air Fresheners

Exposure to spray cleaners and air fresheners during pregnancy increases the risk of childhood asthma in your unborn baby. Ingredients such as chlorine, sodium hydroxide, terrenes, acrylic polymers, and ammonia have known harmful effects on your fetus. With air fresheners, your child is exposed to hazardous alcohols, phthalates, glycol, and glycol-ethylene.

Chores That Involve Climbing or Balancing

Avoid household chores that require you to climb stools, stairs, or ladders during pregnancy. These tasks carry significant risk as they can easily result in falling accidents. Die to your increased weight when pregnant. A minor imbalance or tilt can send you hurtling to the floor.

If you must reach for something higher than your reach, ask for help and take breaks when climbing long flights of stairs.

Cleaning Your Cats Litter Box

There’s a risk of contracting the toxoplasma parasites from cat poop, which causes toxoplasmosis. Your unborn baby is at risk of severe congenital disabilities if this disease infects you shortly after conceiving. You should also wash raw meat, chicken, fish, or vegetables in case of wild or domestic feline dung contamination.

If you have a pet kitty, it’s better someone else handles the cleaning of their delicate business. Where possible, keep your cat from straying outside the house to reduce the risk of carrying the Toxoplasma parasite.

Conclusion

Pregnancy is a delicate time, and it’s often a relief when it’s finally over. There’s so much you can’t do for the sake of your unborn baby, such as sleeping in a freshly painted room when pregnant. Some household chores offer great exercise so you can keep fit and healthy. Others, however, and especially straining ones, have to be avoided altogether.