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Keeping Your Home Clean When Expecting

Tips for Housekeeping during Pregnancy

By Laura Cone

Anne L. Matthews, a registered nurse and associate professor of genetics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, says it's important to keep exposure to chemicals to a minimum during pregnancy, but the risks for birth defects are slim. "Most women clean their houses and thousands of babies are born," Matthews says. "The risk of birth defects is the same regardless. Anybody who gets pregnant has a 3 to 5 percent risk of having a baby who has an isolated birth defect. That figure changes if you have a family history or other risks because of your age or as far as environmental exposures, but it depends on what you are exposed to."

Matthews says many experts believe ammonia or chlorine, found in many household cleaning products, may cause you to feel nauseous but are not likely to harm your baby. Make sure to use rubber gloves when using cleaning products and never mix ammonia and chlorine products, as it will produce dangerous fumes.

"Try and keep down exposures to chemicals in general," she says. "Deciding you want to go and paint the house with all the windows closed is probably not a great idea when you are pregnant. If you decided to paint a bureau out in the open with lots of good ventilation, you are probably not at any increased risk."

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• Talk about it!