If you are expecting a baby, nothing is more important than your well being and safety during the pregnancy. This are truly exciting times and with all of what is going on – family and friends coming over to greet you, making plans for the nursery room and everything else – it can be easy to forget that you are not your old self anymore. There is a whole lot you have to consider for your child’s health and a lot you have to be responsible about.
Cleaning is one of the things you need to be mindful about. It is true that home cleaning is required in order to maintain the environment of your home fresh and sanitised, which is of vital importance during pregnancy. As such cleaning will still remain part of your duties, even though certain tasks will have to be avoided. Cleaning services such as everyday dusting, wiping countertops and even vacuuming the floor you can still do. Take certain precautions and you will be fine.
Do not overwork yourself – yes, it is true that you will still have to do some home cleaning. It is also true that now more than ever you have to maintain your rooms clean and sanitised. But this does not mean that you should work too hard for it, especially if you feel like you are getting tired too quickly. Remind yourself that you have to work slow and take it easy. You are not an expert and professional cleaner after all, not during pregnancy at least, so you do not have to rush. Take a break often and avoid stressful activities.
Use protection gear – you must make sure that your eyes, hands and skin are well protected during your cleaning routine. Your skin might be sensitive during pregnancy and the last thing you want is an allergy or some other irritation caused by a cleaning product. For this reason always wear gloves and even consider cleaning goggles and mask to protect you from the fumes.
Carefully read the labels of the products you are using – even if you used some products without any problem in the past, you may now want to skip everything that says ‘toxic’, ‘poison’ and ‘corrosive’. During pregnancy your immune system is weaker and the danger that such products present is nothing to laugh about. Furthermore, no one can say for sure that such dangerous chemicals would not affect your baby, so definitely avoid using them.
Turn to green cleaning products – in case you haven’t tried before, now would be a good time to start using green cleaning products. You can either buy those from a store, or try to mix them yourself. There are plenty of recipes that you can try out in your home cleaning. You will notice that some of them are effective just as any commercial product you are going to try but they are safe and pose no risk for you and your baby’s health.
Get plenty of fresh air as you clean – regardless of what cleaning product you are using, you should make sure you get fresh air circulating in the room. This can greatly improve the quality of the air you are breathing and remove any toxic vapors and chemicals. If you feel any discomfort, stop your home cleaning and go for some fresh air till the symptoms are gone.
Get help for your cleaning – if your husband has been skipping some cleaning chores in the past, now would be a good time to corner him and force him to have his share of this duty. Home cleaning is hard enough and now that you are pregnant it may even become impossible for you to deal with. For this reason, you can consider help from your husband and other members of the family, or you can hire a cleaning company that is right for your budget.
Know what to avoid – as much as you want to make your home clean and shiny, there are certain tasks that you absolutely should avoid. One such is lifting heavy furniture for your carpet cleaning, and oven cleaning as the solutions that are used there are typically very strong and may pose a risk for your health.
Cleaning during pregnancy is definitely not something that is forbidden, but you should definitely work with caution. You want a clean environment but at the same time you want to make sure you are in perfect health. Never bother with a job that you consider too difficult, especially if it makes you tired and stressed.
