Fear is a powerful motivation. It's used in politics, it's used in religion, and these days it seems to be a tool of choice when it comes to pregnancy. Expectant mothers are being given long lists of what they should do, what they shouldn't do, and told the dire consequences of what will happen if they fail to heed the advice. But how much of it matters?

Rivka writes:

Pregnant women are assigned infinite responsibility for the protection of their fetuses - without, I can't help noticing, actually having much real control. "The first trimester is the most important part of your pregnancy, because all your baby's major body parts and organs are formed during this time." So begins the endless list of all the things you aren't supposed to do during pregnancy, from taking a hot bath to eating a ham sandwich. (There's an equally extensive and detailed list of things you are required to do. Very few things are optional.) Your responsibilities seem clear. And yet, 20-30% of pregnancies miscarry during that "most important" first trimester - and 99% of those miscarriages have nothing to do with the list of required or forbidden activities. You can, quite literally, spend every waking moment chasing after an ideal of perfect pregnancy behavior, but it won't make a damned bit of difference to whether your baby dies before you've even heard a heartbeat. Responsibility without control.

"Every time you pick up your fork, ask yourself, 'is this the best bite I could possibly give my baby?' " directs the most popular American pregnancy guidebook. White sugar is sternly forbidden for the duration of pregnancy, with dire consequences threatened for the health of your baby. And yet the same book approaches prenatal exposure to environmental toxins from a reasoned perspective that considers dose and duration of exposure, timing, proximity, et cetera. You're left with the vague impression that a Krispy Kreme doughnut will do more damage to your baby than the paint factory up the road. Why? Probably because, from the perspective of the pregnancy industry, the only important risk factors are the ones that are the pregnant woman's sole responsibility.

Obviously there are things which a pregnant woman should be doing and things which she should be avoiding. Such a common sense observation, however, doesn’t appear to be sufficient for the authors of the material Rivka is reading. They are painting doom-and-gloom images that almost seem calculated to make women afraid — which is ironic because the fear-induced stress can’t be all that healthy itself, can it?

What might be motivating such extremism? Why the litany of absolutes that must be done or avoided? As Rivka notes, fear sells. Mild common sense probably wouldn’t sell as many books, which I find rather sad.

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