Overview
There aren’t many hard and fast rules about what not to do during your pregnancy, beyond abstaining from alcohol and drugs, of course. For the most part, you can continue with most of your prepregnancy life.
But because the health and safety of your growing baby is essential, here’s a list of 11 things to avoid while pregnant.
1. Certain foods
The biggest list of don’ts for pregnant women involves food.
During your pregnancy, you should avoid:
- Raw meat and shellfish: Uncooked seafood (we’re looking at you, sushi), including oysters, mussels, and clams. Also avoid rare or undercooked beef and poultry. These can be contaminated with toxoplasmosis or salmonella.
- Deli meat: Deli meats can be contaminated with listeria, bacteria that can cross the placenta and infect your developing baby. An infection in utero could lead to blood poisoning and could be life-threatening for your baby.
- Fish with high levels of mercury: That includes fish such as shark, king mackerel, swordfish, and tilefish. Wondering about tuna? In general, canned, chunk light tuna has lower levels of mercury, but it’s still smart to eat it sparingly.
- Smoked seafood: Avoid lox, kippered fish, jerky, or nova style salmon. There’s a risk that this refrigerated, smoked seafood could be contaminated with listeria. Smoked seafood that’s shelf-safe or canned, however, is probably fine.
