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The EWG and You: Tips for a Healthier Pregnancy
The Environmental Working Group (“EWG”) has simple, but important, healthy living tips to protect you and your baby while pregnant and beyond. As a proud EWG partner, Matrescence provides you peace of mind during this time, through our promise that you’ll have access to safe, clean, plant-based skincare that can be used at every stage of motherhood.
What is the Environmental Working Group?
The EWG has been around since 1993, and is made up of scientists and advocates dedicated to helping consumers get easy access to information so that they can make the safest choices for their health when purchasing products.
The EWG shines a spotlight on outdated legislation, harmful agricultural practices and industry loopholes that pose a risk to your health. With a team of scientists, policy experts, lawyers and communications and data experts, they push industries to adopt EWG standards and stand against harmful chemicals. The EWG also educates consumers with actionable information and inspires demand for safer products.
Why the EWG’s Work Matters to Us - And Why It Should Matter to You:
An especially amazing resource for moms like us is the EWG’s Skin Deep Database. The database is a way for you, as the consumer, to determine exactly what’s in your personal care products and whether it poses a threat to you and your baby.
Research shows that toxic pollution begins before birth, with about 287 different chemicals being found in umbilical cord blood, entering via the placenta. Of those chemicals, 180 are known to cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests.
One such group of chemicals are parabens - preservatives commonly found in food, cosmetics and personal care products. Parabens have been thought to mimic estrogen in the body and contribute to estrogen-stimulated breast cancers. A study conducted in 2003 detected parabens in breast milk as well as in the cord blood of newborn babies, confirming that they do penetrate the skin and tissues. In addition, parabens have been linked to skin allergies and irritation and thought to cause disruption of the endocrine system, which in turn interferes with the normal functioning of hormones.
None of this is in any way favorable to anyone, let alone someone trying to conceive or who is pregnant.
What Being EWG Verified Means for Us at Matrescence:
This is why our promise to you, mama, is peace of mind: access to safe, clean, plant-based skincare that can be used at every stage of motherhood. As a proud Environmental Working Group partner, our products rank highly in the Skin Deep database.
In fact, our Rose Glow Purifying Cleanser is even “EWG Verified” on the database, meaning that it meets EWG’s strictest standards for health and safety, avoids any of the ingredients on EWG’s “Unacceptable List” and provides full transparency of ingredients, including fragrance.
EWG’s Top Tips for a Healthy Pregnancy:
Choosing safe personal care products is a great start, but there are additional steps you can take to protect your health and the health of your baby, while pregnant and beyond. We’ve compiled some of the EWG’s Top Tips to ensure your pregnancy can be a little more worry-free:
Choose foods with key nutrients that your healthcare provider recommends during pregnancy, such as folic acid and iodine. Eat fresh fruits and veggies when possible. Use EWG’s Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce to learn which products to buy. Try to plan meals ahead and choose balanced meals which include a variety of grains, vegetables, fruits and proteins.
Drink plenty of water and opt for filtered water when available. At home, filter your tap water with a reverse osmosis system or carbon filter to eliminate common water pollutants such as lead, arsenic, and nitrate. Use EWG’s Tap Water Database to find out whether there are contaminants in your water.
Many household cleaning products contain toxic substances. To create a cleaner household, avoid aerosol products such as air fresheners and cleaning sprays when possible. You can choose to go all-natural by using baking soda and vinegar, or seek out cleaning products with the Safer Choice Label. Use EWG’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning to find better alternatives.
We covered this in detail above, but remember: just because the label says “gentle” or “natural” doesn’t guarantee it’s the best choice to use during pregnancy. Read the ingredient list and avoid triclosan, fragrance and oxybenzone. Learn more about the products you use during pregnancy and also for little ones on EWG’s Skin Deep cosmetics database.
Stay away from these toxic chemicals while pregnant: lead, flame retardants (PBDEs, OPFRs), phthalates, mercury, PFAS, Bisphenols (BPA, BPB, BPS, BPF, BADGE), plasticizers, and PERC. Some furniture, textiles, and other home improvement products may contain a variety of chemical pollutants that can build up in dusty or indoor air. Check our EWG’s Healthy Living Home Guide for more info.
Save this article to come back to when you need a reminder, and breathe easy knowing you have one less thing to stress about during your pregnancy!