pregnancy and gardening

There has been some fun garden talk on twitter lately and you can’t blame everyone, with spring here gardens are on many of our minds.

For me though I will not be too into gardening this year. First off, I am due in June with my first baby. Yeah, I hear babies can take a lot of time. Maybe that is just a rumor. LOL.

Second I suppose I am just one of those hyper-weird freaks who thinks about things too much and when I think of pregnancy and gardening I think of Toxoplasmosis. Basically if you are pregnant you don’t want to get it. Click here to read some Centers of Disease Control information on pregnancy and Toxoplasmosis. I know of at least three neighborhood cats that like to hang out in the yard near the garden… not to mention neighborhood skunk, fox, raccoons, and deer.

I suppose I could wear gloves and tend to a garden but I do enjoy getting my hands in the soil. I enjoy good dirt under my fingernails and the way it packs into the filigree of my wedding band. I know I would occasionally forget to put on gloves.

So if you garden and are pregnant have fun with it. Have someone who will help you maintain it if you are giving birth during the growing season. Wear gloves if you suspect cats may use it as a litter box ever. And wash your hands after.

My midwife still wants me to garden since it is a nice way to be in nature with baby so I may help friends and farms with their crops every so often, but I will be more cautious now that I am to be a mom. I will do container herbs and maybe peas and tomatoes but that will be it til fall when I do some container tubers.