Twenty-Five and OH GOD, HOW WILL THIS EFFECT MY BABY?

So after the initial shock wore down a bit, my thought process changed from “how am I going to handle this,” to “What about all of the things I’ve done recently that pregnant people aren’t supposed to do?” I can’t

I found out on a Friday evening that I was going to be a parent, but just the day before I’d gone to the doctor for the pesky cough that I’d had all Winter break. When I went to the doctor they prescribed me two medications—amoxicillin, an antibiotic; and albuterol, an inhaler. I was diagnosed with bronchitis, which is fairly common if you’re me. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’ve had lung problems all my life, but when I was born I swallowed—actually more like inhaled—amniotic fluid and since then I have been slightly more prone to lung issues (like bronchitis).

On top of that, although I’d cut down a lot because of the persistent cough, I’d been smoking cigarettes—which should probably be a no-no for all people, but I knew was definitely not something a pregnant woman should be doing. As if that weren’t enough to think about, I definitely drank a beer or two in the weeks prior—so naturally, being a nervous person, I was freaking out a lot.

Almost immediately I called the Nurse’s Helpdesk at school to ask them about the prescriptions—which was probably unnecessary since I’d used Sir Google earlier and found out that it was probably still okay to take the antibiotic, but I should probably not puff-puff and instead pass, on the inhaler.

Two hours later when the Nurse finally called back, I’d already done about thirty minutes worth of research on the Internet and—even worse—they read off essentially the same information as if they had searched Google as well. With that out of the way, I had time to worry about all of the smoking and drinking I’d been doing. Having known a smoker or two in my day, I immediately called one of the smokers I’d known that had recently given birth.

She told me the story of how she’d smoked multiple packs a day—which is a lot more than the 5 or so cigarettes per day that I’d smoked for the past few weeks. Her doctor had actually told her that if she quit cold turkey she’d actually risk losing the baby—meaning that she had to slowly wean herself off the cancer sticks. She also passed on one of the better pieces of advice that her doctor had given her—Stress is the worst thing you can do for your baby.