How to make your home less toxic to get pregnant

1. Eat organic!

Everyone should eat this way, but especially any women who are TTC, are pregnant or raising young children. You are the building block of human life and what you ingest gets passed on to your children. Studies show when you switch to a mostly organic diet, your body is able to process the ingested chemicals within 3-5 days!

One important thing to note is that even if you clean your produce vigorously, the pesticides live in the product.

Use the Environmental Working Group’s annual Dirty Dozen – Clean Fifteen guide to learn how to prioritize your organic food dollars 

2. Go fragrance-free

All products with fragrance have up to 3000 chemicals that manufacture the scent! All those yummy scents sneak into your body and wreak havoc on your system! Already exposed to chemicals in our cars… but adding in the scented car on top of this, let’s not make this worst!

Check ingredient labels for the words “fragrance” or “perfume”; if you see them, put it back. Look for products that are scented with plant-based essential oils only. Check out our favorite type of essential oils – Vibrant Blue Oils. 

Flowers are another great way to bring in a fresh scent! Incents! You think these are holistic and helpful to your health, but this is almost as bad as smoking! Sage or Palo Santos with windows open is okay.

3. Pass on plastics!

Plastic is for sure convenient, but it also exposes us to chemicals that mess with our hormones. Known as “endocrine disrupting chemicals” these substances readily leach from plastics into the foods and liquids in contact with them.

We can’t avoid plastics everywhere, but if you switch to safer materials (like glass) when it comes to food & drinks, you’ll be able to reduce a good chunk of your exposures. There are not safe plastics, there are only safer plastics. No reusing plastics!

When trying to get pregnant, endocrine disruptors is the huge thing to look out for. You need to protect your internal foundation not just for you but for the creation of a healthy child.

4. Safer personal care products

We absorb a lot from what we put on our body! Our skin is our largest organ, and while we don’t absorb everything we put on it, we definitely absorb a lot, including the chemicals used in personal care products.

Unfortunately, regulation of chemicals in personal care products is extremely weak; the last me a federal law regulating this sector of the marketplace was passed was 1938! More endocrine disrupting chemicals, carcinogens, and even neurotoxins are commonly used in the make-up and personal care products we use each day. The goal here us to phase out the use of conventional skincare, makeup, and personal care products, and seek out safer nontoxic alternatives.

My favorite place to recommend safer products is Beauty Counter. 

5. Safer cleaning products

What are you cleaning your home with! What you are cleaning your home with, you are bringing into your body and those around you.

6. Take off your shoes

What are you tracking in on the bottom of your shoes? Take those off at the front door and leave them away from animals and babies crawling around the floor! Not only will this safe your carpets and moping, it saves your health.

7. Filter your water

What are you drinking?  There are so many chemicals in our drinking water! Our water system is not catching everything that is bad for your body. Only 89 are technically be regulated. Make sure to check if there is fluoride in your water especially for women TTC, pregnant, or nursing young children.

This isn’t just your drinking water, you shower, cook etc! If you can’t get a whole house system, you can get filters for each faucet

8. Dust your house regularly!

Do you know how much dust your house is collecting? Everything you bring into your house is releasing chemicals and added chemicals tend to shed constantly and form in our house dust! Get into a routine of dusting outing your home. You can’t stop dust from happening. Wet dust, not feather dusting that is trapping it.

9. Limit canned foods

While canned foods are convenient, they are also an exposure source to the same BPA found in plastics. The lining of cans are coated with an epoxy resin to prevent the food from touching the aluminum, but just like with plastics, these endocrine disrupting chemicals shed and migrate into the food. More acidic foods like canned tomatoes will have much higher levels. Aim to purchase fresh, or jarred foods over canned, when possible.

Beware of BPA-Free claims as often these just contain nearly identical chemicals in the same family (like BPF or BPS), or other chemicals that we don’t know much about.

10. Open your windows!

You want to keep the air circulation going in your home. Keep fresh air coming into the house! This will help a lot with getting out the old and bringing in the new. Paired with an air filter this will keep healthy breathing air for you and your household.