Drinking Water Safety & Ensuring a Healthy Pregnancy

Drinking plenty of water is important enough for humans under normal circumstances; it's doubly important during pregnancy. Drinking enough water can help a pregnant woman retain less water and keep her complexion clear during hormonal shifts. More importantly, however, it can keep amniotic fluid at a healthy level, prevent hypertension, and help prevent premature labor.

It is not just a matter of drinking any water, of course. It is crucial that a pregnant woman drink the right water— and the right water can only be the healthiest and most contaminant-free water possible.

There are several contaminants in unfiltered tap water that can cause serious complications for a pregnancy. Recent studies have even linked drinking tap water during the first trimester to miscarriages.

Being informed about the dangers of tap water to a pregnancy is of vital importance. The following is a look at some of the environmental contaminants that can be present in drinking water and create risks during pregnancy.

Lead - Lead can be found in extremely high and dangerous levels in water systems containing lead pipes, brass fixtures, or lead solder. The EPA recommends running the tap for at least 30 seconds to run out any sedentary environmental pollutants… but is that really enough of a precaution when it comes to the health during pregnancy?

Arsenic & Nitrates - If you live in an agricultural region and are surrounded by farms, your water may contain trace amounts of arsenic and nitrates from fertilizers that are used on crops. (Fertilizers with arsenic are now banned, but contaminants like this don't go away overnight.)

Chlorine- Although it can be innocuous enough on its own, recent research has discovered that chlorine can combine with other elements in tap water to create chloroform and other more destructive chemicals. A few studies have begun to link these pollutants to higher risks of stunted fetal growth and miscarriage.

Prescription Medications - A variety of studies recently have revealed that our public water has become a soup of everything from Xanax to hormone-related prescriptions like birth control. The studies are still few and far between, but it seems pretty obvious that avoiding the risk of contaminants like these in tap water should be a high priority during pregnancy.

Whether you live in what you think is a high-risk area or in what you think is a safe zone, you should get your water tested. Your local water company may provide testing, but there are also water testing kits that you can purchase online.

Think seriously about investing in a water filtration system for your home. Even if you drink bottled water for the duration of your pregnancy, you will still be using the tap for everything from cooking to brushing your teeth and ingesting tap water. It's always better to be safe than sorry with stakes as high as the health and well-being of you and your child.