Salmon and feta

Pregnancy and birth feel like a one-shot deal, especially to the first-time expectant parents.  You want to do everything for your future child so that it will have everything going for it.  It's easy to lose perspective.   

So-called experts and charlatans of all stripes are very much aware of this and capitalize on the desire of the parents to make the best baby possible by selling them every conceivable device.  (Of course, there are some excellent products out there as well).  The book I'm reading is one such example.  It is written superficially and produced to sell (I'll try to come up with a review sometime soon).  Another interesting example is this strange device.  Of course you'd spend a hundred bucks to make your baby smarter!  It would be silly not to!

One thing that you can't contract out (unless you've gone so far as to get a surrogate mother!) is the pregnant lady's diet.  Everyone's got an opinion about what a pregnant woman should, and should not, be eating.  Rose and I decided, for the most part, to rely on the authorities in this case.  (At the same time, we are not going overboard -- no severe restrictions on sugar and red dye number 3).  She is staying away from sushi and raw fish, cold cuts, smoked anything (salmon, etc.), soft and semi-soft cheeses.  Well, we (Rose, but I feel culpable) have been kind of cheating on the feta and we cheated once on smoked salmon.

Poke around the internet a bit and you'll see that health agencies in different countries have slightly different guidelines.  But we're going with the standard, conservative advice (Health Canada and pregnancy books have been our guide) and it would take too much of our energy to thoroughly research and question ALL conventional advice about pregnancy!

We are also doing the right thing when it comes to smoking and alcohol.  No smoking (an easy one) and no alcohol (a tougher one) at all.  The latest studies will all tell you something or other, but we're going old school here.  So old school that I'm going new school in supporting Rose and abstaining from drinking.  Sort of.  It's tough.     

One controversy is fish. You have to be careful to avoid potential exposure to mercury and other toxins.  From what we've read, as long as you choose certain kinds of cooked fish, the benefits of OMEGA 3 to the fetus outweigh the risks.  We dropped the questionable fish from the local asian market and we've been trying to go, instead, to this great local lunch joint where we trust the quality of the fish, once a week, to get the recommended dose.