SHOULD A PREGANANT WOMAN AVOID TANNING

Should a pregnant woman avoid tanning? This question never crossed my mind until our Sicilian holiday. My wife is Irish with fair skin (maybe that's a redundant comment) and so the sun can wreak havoc on her if she doesn't protect her skin with at least SPF 30. And she religiously applies it whenever she goes out in the sun. so I never gave it a second thought. But one day, we drove north of Tripani to a nature reserve where the views were supposed to be spectacular. The beach was a twenty minute hike from the parking lot and was pretty strenuouos climb. The reward was a pristine blue beach with caves in the hillside as a backdrop to this beautiful cove. Once at the cove, there were many holiday sun worshippers having a great day of swimming and tanning. My wife was by far the whitest skinned woman on the beach. And she was also the only pregnant woman there. Valerie pointed this out and of course, she was right. Which got me to thinking, "do other tanning worshippers know better than to tan while pregnant but since we are not serial tanners, may not know the protocol? I made a note to research this subject for dadsdecoded then put it put of my mind until I saw a woman walk by who looked at Val, who was napping, and made a sort of face to herself that told me she did not approve at all of what Valerie was doing to herself and the baby.

This solidified my thought that I needed to check on tanning in the hot sun while pregnant. Does the baby get hot in there? Something told me the fluid would protect the baby but I wasn't quite sure. Seems like the light couldn't get to the baby but again, I wasn't positive. When we got back to the hotel, i did a search. And found some interesting articles.

The bottom line is that no one quite knows if tanning while pregnant is a bad thing but some facts held up. UV light from the sun is known to break down folic acid and pregnant women definitely need folic acid when they're pregnant. Folic acid prevents babies from being born with spinal bifida. But this is most important in the first 12 weeks so at 6 months, this issue will have passed. But still, some say the uv rays are especially not good for pregnant women. Others say it is not good to heighten the core temperature of the pregnant woman because the baby can suffer. Dehydrdation isnt good for mother or baby.

In the end, doctors suggest moderation is the key. Stay out of the sun for the critical uv danger hours of 12-4pm and don't stay in the sun for long periods of time period.

Valerie waited until 4 the next day to go out into the sun in the beautiful beach town of Cephalu in northern Sicily. And reported that it's the hardest Bean has ever kicked her to date. He either liked it or was pissed off. Not sure which but I'm glad vacation is over and Bean is out of potential harms way. (first it was with the Mafia, then the sun.) Looking after an unborn child is a tough job. What is it going to be like when he finally shows himself to the world in 2 1/2 months from now? Whew!

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