7 ways that behaviour during pregnancy affects your baby

Are you wondering how your behaviour during pregnancy affects your baby?

Well, I hope to be able to shed some light on that for you.

I know, I've been there... when you’re pregnant, you’re bombarded with so much information about what you should and shouldn’t do that it can be hard to have a guilt-free day when you can just think about what YOU want.

The last thing I want to do is to add to this cacophony of 'recommended behaviour during pregnancy', but I’d like to show you a slightly different perspective on things. This is NOT about all the usual stuff you’re likely to have come across. Instead, I want to share with you some of the more subtler ways that your behaviour during pregnancy can affect your baby.

Everything that I’m sharing with you is supported by research, but it’s information that rarely surfaces. It certainly didn’t in ALL the stuff that I read during both my pregnancies... and I read A LOT!

So today I want to share with you how your behaviour during pregnancy can affect your baby, in ways that you may not have fully appreciated.

If you like you might prefer to hear me talk through this blog post as a podcast. You can listen to that right here by clicking the play button below. You might also like to subscribe to the podcast and listen to it on your phone.

Here are the seven ways that your behaviour during your pregnancy will affect your baby:

1. Smoking & Drinking Alcohol

It’s widely known that alcohol and smoking are bad for the baby, and one effect is that babies who are subjected to a smoking and drinking mum are underweight and this is probably due to the fact that alcohol and cigarettes are known to suppress they appetite.

But, what’s not always known is exactly what happens to the baby when you drink. LIKE THE MOMENT that you’re drinking!

It can be easy to brush the comment "suppress their appetite" aside. We all lose our appetite sometimes, right? no big deal! But let me shed a bit of light on what is going on.

It might make you change your mind about that cheeky glass of wine…. and no I’m not one for piling the guilt on here, you know me by now... it’s about being conscious and mindful in our actions.

Alcohol causes a baby to stop liquid breathing

There was some research whereby mothers drank a shot of vodka. Once the mother had ingested the vodka, the baby stopped breathing. The baby would only start breathing again once the alcohol had cleared itself out of her system. For one shot this might be for just over an hour.

I never realised this when I was pregnant and I think if I had known that they STOPPED BREATHING (!) then I would have completely stayed off alcohol.

Who knows what kind of long-term impact it has on your baby if he or she not breathing for a few hours.

So now when we go back to that phrase.. suppressing the appetite.. perhaps it's probably due to the fact that they’re no longer taking in nutrients through the amniotic fluid because they’ve stopped liquid breathing.

Smoking makes them breathe faster… probably so that they can get more oxygen from you. It also suppresses their appetite.

Alcohol can be pretty damaging around the time of conception too; If you’re drinking around the time of conception, then it can lead to an increased risk of malformations in the eyes, ears, lips, head and face.

2. What you eat… before you conceive

Diet is important when we’re pregnant. In fact, the healthier our diet during pregnancy, the better for both mum AND baby.

But what about just before you become pregnant?

There’s mounting evidence to support the idea that your diet before and around conception is also hugely important for your baby’s growth and development.

I came across two studies that shed more light on this; the Dutch Hunger/Famine study which shares the effect of famine on the mother and their babies, and more recently a British study in Gambia which shows the stark difference between babies born at differing times of year i...