Bringing a life into this world is an incredibly beautiful thing, but it's also an enormous responsibility. From the second conception occurs, everything a mom-to-be inhales, ingests, aborbs and is exposed to can affect her developing baby. We all know to avoid drinking alcohol, eat healthy and stop smoking, but you also need to take a close look at the beauty and skin care products you're using.
"Any beauty products used on the skin during pregnancy can be absorbed into the bloodstream and travel to the baby," says Sherry Ross, MD, OB/GYN and women's health expert at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. For this reason, it's important to avoid any potentially harmful ingredient, which, unfortunately, includes the ingredients contained in many of our beloved beauty products.
To help ensure you keep yourself and your developing baby out of harm's way, we asked experts to list the top beauty ingredients to avoid during pregnancy.
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Fragrance
If you look at the ingredient list for most of your beauty products, from your face wash and lotion to your shampoo and conditioner, you're likely to see something labeled "fragrance." While it might sound harmless, Dr. Dendy Engelman, MD, a dermatologist at Manhattan Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery in New York, explains that they're usually made up of other harmful chemicals, like parabens, benzene derivatives, aldehydes and more, which are linked to cancer and nervous system issues. Short term, they can cause irritation and redness on the applied area.
According to Engelman, avoid ingredients labeled parfum, perfume, linalool, limonene, eugenol, citronellol, geraniol or cinnamal, which indicate that fragrance is added. "Fragrance-free products are mostly labeled as so," she adds. If you're looking for a fragrance-free skin care line that is mom-to-be-safe, check out Belli Skin Care and MyChelle Dermaceuticals.
BPA, or bisphenol A, has been used to make certain plastics and resins since the 1960s but is becoming increasingly unpopular in recent years due to its negative health implications. It's often used in the packaging of various beauty products, which can be potentially hazardous for anyone using such products. "BPA is a highly unstable chemical that can infiltrate into whatever is being contained by it," Engelman warns. "It disrupts the endocrine system, leading to breast and prostate cancer, infertility, heart disease, diabetes, etc." It's especially not recommended for pregnant women, as fetal exposure has been linked to a myriad of developmental issues and behavioral problems.
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Formaldehyde
You've probably heard of this ingredient, which is commonly found in household products, but it's also lurking in your beauty products. It's used as a preservative in everything from hair dyes and relaxers to hair removers to smoothers. "This chemical has been linked to cancer, as well as other nervous system issues, like chest pain, coughing, trouble breathing and respiratory irritations," Engelman says. Especially during pregnancy, she recommends looking for nail polishes labeled 3-Free or 5-Free, such as Jin Soon or Butter London, which do not use this chemical.
Look on the ingredient list of many of your beauty products and you'll likely find a slew of chemicals that end in -paraben, such as methylparaben, butylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, etc. These are all preservatives that prevent the growth of harmful bacteria in everything from lotions to mascara. However, Anate Brauer, MD, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Greenwich Fertility and IVF Centers and assistant professor of OB/GYN at NYU School of Medicine, says that these chemicals have weakly estrogenic properties that have been linked to potential growth issues in male fetuses. "While it's almost impossible to completely avoid parabens altogether throughout pregnancy, it's reasonable to limit them," she says. "Since controversy over the preservative has increased in recent years, many products, which are 'paraben-free' are now labeled as such."
