When I was pregnant with my fourth child, I was told I had been exposed to a virus that would undoubtedly cause birth defects in my unborn fetus. I was encouraged to abort her. After meditating and praying about the advice my physician had given me, I decided to take my chances and love and protect my baby, no matter what her mental and physical handicaps were to be. To everyone’s surprise, she came out with perfect health on all levels. My doctor shrugged and said I had obviously been lucky. However, I knew that the answer went beyond luck. I knew that my focus on keeping everything else in my environment and life pure was likely what tipped the scale in her favor.
Every expectant mother expects to deliver a healthy baby. However, the 85,000 chemicals permitted for commercial use in the U.S.—the vast majority of which the Environmental Protection Agency has not tested for safety—make it less than probable that every mother will get her expected outcome. Children in the United States are grown and birthed into a toxic soup.
Our Toxic Soup
Until recently it was assumed that the placenta shielded the developing fetus from most toxicants. We now know that the same umbilical cord that carries nutrients to the fetus also carries the industrial waste we are all exposed to. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has reported that the umbilical cord blood taken from 10 newborn babies contained over 200 environmental toxicants — that’s before they’ve inhaled their first breath or had their first breast milk (which is also full of the stored toxins from mom). The umbilical cord blood was found to contain polyaromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins, furans, pesticides, chemicals from flame retardants, industrial lubricants, plastics, consumer product ingredients and wastes from burning coal, gasoline, and garbage. A second follow-up study found chemicals in the cord blood of 10 infants that included lead, mercury, methylmercury, perfluorochemicals (PFCs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and more.
Why Should We Care?
These toxicants and chemicals disrupt the hormone communication system between cells, which then affects organ development and function, mood, fertility and reproduction, and causes disease in later life. These endocrine-disruptor or estrogen-mimicking chemicals are the cause of future weight gain, obesity and diabetes, food allergies, infertility, reproductive abnormalities, reproductive system cancer, early puberty, and neurological and behavioral disorders, like ADHD.
What Can We Do to Alleviate Birth Defect Risk?
The best defense to alleviate birth defect risk is to minimize the mother’s exposure to toxins during pregnancy. The second defense is prenatal nutrition–bolstering her nutritional absorption and ability to detox these chemicals. To learn more about how I can help your prenatal nutrition, schedule a Discovery Call with my team.
Here’s to our future healthy generations of beautiful children!
With love,
Dr. Keesha
