Here’s a great video of Dr. Gloria Gilbere speaking about chemical toxicity beginning in the womb. Common everyday chemicals that are found in pesticides, cleaning supplies, cosmetics, air fresheners, perfume, laundry supplies, personal care products etc. are absorbed through the mother’s skin and then transferred from the mother to the fetus.
Dr. Gilbere points out that these toxins set the child up for a variety of health conditions like multiple chemical sensitivity, MS, downs syndrome, auto-immune disorders and ADHD. I would add obesity, depression, anxiety disorders, addiction, cancer and many more to this list. Multiple chemical sensitivity is a serious and debilitating condition that affects millions and is growing every day in response to the ever growing barrage of chemicals in our daily environment. It should be of concern to everyone, but there is very little awareness of its existence.
Why does this happen you ask? Because the chemicals in these products contain neurotoxins and endocrine disruptors. They disrupt and damage all the systems and the organs in the body, but particularly the nervous system, immune system, brain, detoxification and metabolic systems. These chemicals are harmful to grown adults, but even more so for a vulnerable and developing fetus. Research has found more than 247 chemicals in the umbilical cord of fetuses, of which many of them are carcinogenic.
One of the most insidious aspects about environmental toxins in the womb is that their impact may not be apparent or visible at birth. A child may appear to be completely healthy and then years later develops ADHD, clinical depression, anxiety disorders, obesity or some form of cancer. The connection to everyday chemicals goes unsuspected because it often isn’t immediate. These kinds of toxins accumulate in the body and can impact our health for the rest of our lives.
This is a crucial point for mothers to be or women wanting to be a mother in the near future. As Dr. Gilbere points out, you should place as much emphasis on the chemicals you are exposed to during pregnancy as you do cigarettes and alcohol. As they are just as detrimental to the health of your child both short-term and long-term. Everything you are exposed to affects the growing fetus.
This is true both before and during pregnancy. Any chemicals you are exposed to before you are pregnant accumulates in your body as well. Chemicals like pesticides and other endocrine disruptors are very difficult, if not impossible, to excrete from the body. It weakens your organs and systems. The toxins circulating in your body from many years previous can also be passed to the fetus and if any of your organs and systems are weak, disrupted or damaged from the toxins, these vulnerabilities can be passed on to your child as well.
Adopting a green living lifestyle is really not a matter of choice anymore if one wants to maintain any kind of stability in health. Using non-toxic, environmentally friendly cleaning supplies and personal care products, avoiding the use of pesticides, herbicides, perfume, air fresheners, etc., will protect the mental and physical health of both you and your child.
