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Keeping Your Home Clean When Expecting

Tips for Housekeeping during Pregnancy

By Laura Cone

Most women would not mind having a personal maid to keep their homes tidy and clean. When you're pregnant you may have an overwhelming need to clean the garage, closets and everything between the ceilings and baseboards. It's all part of the nesting urge scientists and geneticists can't explain.

As a doula, Bradley Method childbirth instructor and mother of two Sandra Parisi of Jensen Beach, Fla., tells her clients to fight the urge to make everything immaculate. "Nesting is about preparing everything for the baby," she says. "Women go through a spurt of wanting to have everything very clean. That usually happens right before they go into labor. That's where they can fall into the tendency to use chlorine or chemicals that are really harsh."

When cleaning, use non-toxic cleaning agents and avoid chemicals, she says. "You do want a clean environment, but the baby is going to be used to the same germs you have gotten used to in your environment," Parisi says. "There are a lot of products on the market now you can use that are not harmful or toxic. That's very important. I tell my moms if you can't ingest it, it's probably not a good idea to be in direct contact with it. The vapors and fumes, all of that is absorbed."

Parisi says general housekeeping should suffice. "They can tidy up and vacuum and dust but I tell them to avoid at all costs going into this disinfecting craze that is ingrained in us," she says. "We want to have it immaculately clean, but either get someone to do the cleaning for you or do your general cleaning with products that are non-toxic."

One of the best ways to keep a home clean is by having the home organized with items arranged in a practical and functional manner. In preparation for your baby's birth, you can arrange a special room for breastfeeding or a station for changing diapers.

"Have a basket close at hand with diapers, little wash clothes, a snack for mom," Parisi says. "If she is breastfeeding it's a good idea to have a station prepared so when she sits back to breastfeed the baby, there is a large glass of water or tea because she is going to get thirsty. You will not want to break the breastfeeding session to get a glass of water."

When your home is organized and neat with a place for everything and everything in its place, it's easier to see what needs to be done. Keep laundry baskets in every bedroom so you can more efficiently collect soiled laundry.

Although it's generally safe to clean up messes in the home during your pregnancy, it's a good idea to let someone else take over the duties if someone is ill in the family or if the cat litter box needs to be changed. "That's when Dad steps in and takes over some of those duties, especially if there is another child who is ill or you have a newborn baby or you are about to give birth," says Parisi.

Want to see more?

• A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place: Tools and Techniques to Attack Home Organization
• Health Hazards in Hiding: 10 Things You Can Do Today to Raise a Healthy Child
• Toxic Mold: One Family's Story
• Talk about it!

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