It is amazing how much contradictory information is taken as the gospel truth. I’ve written about this before regarding foods and caffeine consumption.
I’m learning that pregnancy brings with it a whole new level of what I call Contradictory Information Syndrome.
Let’s start with tuna. I really like tuna. But I must clarify that and say I really like white albacore tuna. We made the switch several years ago and once you make the switch, the regular plain tuna is just, well, yucky. And of course one of the biggest warnings a pregnant woman gets is to not eat white albacore tuna because if you do your unborn baby will be overrun with mercury and you will cause all kinds of horrible things to happen to your child and you will be the world’s worst mother ever and you will suffer in your shame and guilt for the rest of your life… Yada, yada, yada.
So I dutifully followed the warnings and when David went to the store he got us some of the plain tuna even though we had plenty of the good stuff in the basement. Yuck. Truthfully, I would rather not eat tuna at all than eat that stuff. However, tuna is good for you. What to do? So in my curiosity I went online to see what I could find out.
(May I digress here a moment? I don’t usually watch Mad About You, but when I was at my worst with the morning sickness several weeks ago and desperate for anything to take my mind off of how I was feeling, I turned it on. Ironically, they were in the episodes where they just had found out they were pregnant. In one episode they were in a bookstore and Jamie, the wife, was trying to choose a pregnancy book. Her husband told her it was easy. Just look for the book that tells you what you want to hear and buy that one. I like his reasoning!)
Anyway, back to tuna.
So I went online, kind of in a Jamie-like fashion, to see if there was anyone out there telling me it was ok to eat white albacore tuna. I found some interesting information in these articles.
- U.S. Tuna Foundation: Understanding Mercury Levels in Canned Tuna – Exposing Common Myths
- U.S. Tuna Fishermen Challenge FDA Warning
Yes, I realize these were written by “pro tuna” folks. But I thought that the information there was better than all the information I was finding on pregnancy websites where they basically just all cut and paste each other’s articles. I will let people read these for themselves, but I thought they were enlightening.
Anyway, after reading these I decided that I was comfortable with the risks associated with the once a week use of white albacore tuna and last night had a heavenly white albacore tuna sandwich (made with mayo and sweet relish) on toasted bread. It was delicious.
On to testing.
Because I will be over 35 when I deliver this baby, I am considered “high risk”. Well, that may be the case in the medical field, but since God decided I was going to be over 35 when I delivered I guess I don’t consider this especially risky. I consider it part of His plan.
Before I even went in to my first appointment, David and I had researched the whole
“over 35 testing thing” and had come to our own conclusions. However, we weren’t totally sure what to expect in our conversation with the doctor since I had just switched primary care physicians to this doctor. I switched because as much as I liked my previous doctor, we had been disappointed with how he responded to our miscarriage. To us, it was a loss. After hoping for a baby for so many years and to finally get a positive test, it was a true loss to us. His description was that it appeared something happened, but it didn’t take. Well, I suppose medically one could say that, but to us it was a loss.
We switched to the new doctor because he is very pro-life and friends of friends had been very happy with his services. In fact, the first time we met him to do an “interview” and we told him about our miscarriage, he was genuinely sorry. It was a marked difference from the other doctor.
Anyway, on our first pregnancy visit (to confirm the pregnancy) the subject of testing came up. He did not recommend all of the genetic testing, amniocentesis, etc. and actually discouraged the testing because he feels they are unreliable and the potential benefits do not outweigh the risks. I wish I could remember everything he told us, but I was so out of it that day that the facts escape me.
However, I do remember him telling us some very interesting information about the companies that produce all of these new tests and how much of it is motivated by $$$. It had to do with the need to keep coming out with new tests because they were losing money because something else had become obsolete. I’ll have to ask him next time I go in. Or maybe a reader here will know what I am talking about and can leave a comment. The bottom line was he is not a fan of the testing and feels the Level 2 ultrasound around week 20 is a much better tool, but he would do them if they were important to us.
Well, we were very relieved by his attitude because that was the same conclusion we had come to. We did not want the tests. Our reasons were pretty simple. Most of the tests are quite unreliable and offer up many false positives. I did not want to spend nine months worrying about something that wasn’t true. As far as the amnio goes, the odds are 1 in 200 you could hurt the baby to the point of miscarriage. I wouldn’t gamble my car on those odds, let alone a baby! We had no peace about that test at all. We also felt there was no need to test because it would not matter what they found – we would not end the pregnancy. Weighing all the negative odds against any perceived value such as dealing with the reality ahead of time just made it a no-brainer for us.
I know others make different choices and I wonder how many parents have these tests without having all of the information available to them. On many websites where I’ve read, you are made out to be stupid if you don’t take advantage of every test available to you. But I think reading between the lines and doing a little digging on your own often reveals that there is a lot more to most questions than meet the eye.
So we are at peace about these decisions and have had no second thoughts. Of course we hope and pray for a healthy baby and would love to know without a doubt right now that everything is ok. But we will just have to wait until the 20 week ultrasound to get a peek at what is going on in there and who has taken up residence in my tummy!
Stay tuned for more of David and Sallie’s baby dilemmas in upcoming entries including the latest question… To baptize or not to baptize… More on that soon…
Oh Sallie…I am so excited for you and PROUD of you for making a decision like this. Can I share? If you’ve been to my blog you’ve probably seen a little of this but I’ll share anyway.
My husband and I married and we lost 2 babies. We now have 3 beautiful children. Out of those 3, two of our children have a rare genetic disease that we now know my husband is a carrier of. Specifically it is called distal arthrogryposis multiplex congenita. We did NOT know about this when trying to conceive or when pregnant and I am so thankful to God above that we didn’t. I’ve always said “I would never _____.” (you fill in the blank, I can’t even say that word). But the truth is, in a moment of weakness none of us can say what we would do.
I thank my God above that he protected me from ever having to make such a decision, or to worry my 9 months away. I praise HIM for protecting me, protecting my womb, and giving me three precious children, even if 2 of them have significant medical needs.
I’m a strong advocate in the AMC (my children’s disease) community and I can tell you many families have been pushed to abortion because of what genetic tests reveal in pregnancy. Sadly, many parents do choose to abort and then suffer with the consequences for years and years afterwards.
Again, thank you for letting me share.
Bravo Sallie!!! I so admire, and respect, your decision. I am going to say up front for the readers here, I do not have children. I’ve had two miscarriages though! In my experience with all my sisters in Christ – everyone has a different view of what the tests do for us, and the baby. My bottom line truth is this – whatever God brings, or allows, into our life is for our best. If for some reason God trusts us with a child who has a of health issue – what a privilege! How many people out there would God trust with one – to love, care for and protect? God certainly accepts us with all our ‘issues’!!! Do we not want to mirror HIM? My hope is that your baby is perfectly healthy. However, if for some reason there are issues of health – take joy for He who holds all life precious, and is trusting you with a very special one! OH that more people were favored by God with something so precious.
You are SO RIGHT about white albacore tuna. My husband thought I was crazy when we first married and I bought the “fancy” tuna. He now thinks like us.
We opted out of the testing, too.
Let me just say – WHITE ALBACORE TUNA ROCKS!
I had the same dilemma (the prenatal screenings, not the tuna!). I ultimately chose to have the first set of screenings even though my doctor and I both knew we would continue the pregnancy regardless of the outcome. For me, it was the difference between delivering the baby at our cozy local hospital or (if the results had been high probability of birth defects) choosing to deliver at the university hospital with all the specialists at hand.
Hi… you don’t know me, but I thought I’d let you know how wonderful I think it is that God has blessed you with a little one, and that I think you’re making a wise decision when it comes to testing. About being at higher risk because of your age: my mom was forty-six when her last baby was born. The good God who designed you knows what He’s doing :).
Blessings to you.
Rachel
To baptize or not to baptize – ooh, that will be interesting. Reformed presbyterian here.
I would rather eat cat food than low grade tuna. Actually I think the cheapie tuna IS cat food. For those of you who have not had albacore, stay away! For once you have tried it you can never go back.
“I know others make different choices and I wonder how many parents have these tests without having all of the information available to them.”
They don’t, they don’t know AT ALL, and that is the sad thing. I am so happy that you are exploring and researching and not just taking what someone says as the best for you.
Now, if you read my blog at all you know that I am more of the natural/crispy/AP type but my feeling is that parents need to know and do what is best for their family, and every family is different. But to just blindly follow an “expert” in any area when you don’t understand what is going on and even worse when you don’t really feel right about it, well that is just silly.
Bravo to you Sallie and David!
(I do have a book recomendation, for what is worth, The Thinking Womens Guide to a Better Birth. I will warn you it is of the all natural bent but it is a source of information to mull over and use what works for you)
Blessings, Amie
We didn’t have any testing done either, just an ultrasound. With our first, at Landstuhl medical center in Germany, the doctors pushed it a little more. (Not too much, just a little pestering and asking “Are you sure you don’t want any testing?”) Our second doctor was at a Christian ob/gyn clinic in Montgomery, AL, and they understood our choice and did not pressure us or second guess our decision.
I’ve know a few people with false positives, all they did was worry. Plus, if you’re going to keep your baby no matter what, why worry prematurely. God will give you the strength to deal with anything that comes up in His good time when you need it.
While we don’t personally believe in infant baptism, we have been members of churches that did practice infant baptism. We can see how someone could believe that, but don’t believe that’s how the scriptures should be interpreted. However, we don’t think it’s a defining issue of faith. C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity sums up what those are pretty well. We were both re-baptized after choosing to follow Jesus Christ.
Some churches we’ve belonged to have done baby dedications instead. We don’t believe in those either, but again, not an issue for us to fight about. We move so often, we’re just happy to be able to find a church that is filled with the Holy Spirit and preaching sound doctrine from the Bible. If we’re lucky, we get good music, too, although we sacrificed that for good preaching one move.
This move, we’ve been blessed to find a good church with a good nursery and good music that’s the closest to our house of any move. The church is less than 5 minutes from our house, it’s been a blessing with 2 small children to strap in and out of the car. It also makes it easier to come in for anything going on during the week.
I forgot to add…I came to the same decision about peanut butter. I had to eat protein every 2 hours for the first 4 months or I felt even worse than I was already. Without eating peanut butter, your protein choices get old quick when you’re eating some that often. The risk of some obscure peanut butter mold seemed pretty small to me. I tried cashew butter first, but it was horrible…and I love cashews.
I wholely agree with your choices and can’t wait to read about your plowing through the breastfeeding/bottle feeding, cloth/disposable diapering, schooling, sleeping, etc. wars.
I also opted out of testing when I was pregnant the first two times…it hasn’t come up yet this pregnancy.(Too early). My doctor at the time was not a Christian, but he told me the main reason to have it done was to abort if there was a problem…
So, I definately did not have the testing done.
I am only 28 but I refused testing with all 4 of my pregnancies. My reasoning was that it wouldn’t make any difference if the tests did reveal something. And there are ALOT of false positives. Many a healthy baby have been aborted as a result of these awful tests. I work at a pregnancy support center and we get Christian women calling in every so often who are emotional wrecks b/c of something a test revealed. One lady’s neonatologist would not stop pushing abortion. I told her to immediately find a BABY doctor that actually wanted to treat babies rather than have them killed b/c they might be a malpractice risk. Whenever I counsel a woman in these difficult situations I always start that God knew exactly what the circumstances would be when he created the life and that they should take comfort in that and trust His ways. I pray you have a great pregnancy and that your little one is growing healthy and strong every day.
Some friends of mine had a wonderful little boy with Downs Syndrome and various other problems. A couple of years later they were expecting again. Although understandably concerned, they did not test and committed all to God in prayer. At the 20 week scan they were told it was likely this baby also had Downs. Last week she had her first birthday as a perfectly healthy, happy little girl. Just think, in the womb of an unbeliever she may never have made it in to this world.