If you’re looking for tips on having a happy and healthy pregnancy, here is some advice from our friend Amy at The Pregnant Chicken!

I remember when I found out I was pregnant the first time. I vowed to do everything right for a healthy pregnancy – after all, it wasn’t about me anymore. It was about this little person we’d created and I was going to make sure I gave him or her the absolute best start possible.

So I started furiously researching. I knew about the big stuff like excessive alcohol, smoking, drugs, etc., but I knew there was a ton of little things that were essential to a perfect pregnancy and I needed to check them off my list.

I waded into the pregnancy books, Internet advice, DVDs, and quickly realized that if I wanted to eat (or participate in life in general) then I was going to have to break some rules and take some risks. I was horrified of these extensive do’s and don’ts!

The rules contradicted themselves; experts disagreed on pregnancy myths, what was considered gospel by one group, was considered an old wives’ tale by another.

I was told by one woman not to raise my arms above my head because it would wrap the umbilical cord around my baby’s neck. I scoffed at it. “How ridiculous is that?!” I thought. Then all I could think after that was, “What if the cord does get wrapped around the baby’s neck?” I would forever wonder if it was because I reached for that one can on the top shelf.

Not only did I realize that no one could adhere to all the ‘rules’ out there, but that people would use the duration of my pregnancy as an opportunity to fuel my anxiety and self-doubt.

People often say, “Why take the risk?” or “Better safe than sorry” as if there’s a simple list of 10 things that women should avoid. So I thought I’d put a little video together of just a fraction of the advice I’ve heard over the years. Sure, in isolation they don’t seem like a big deal but once you start seeing the list grow you start to see what an impossible task it is.

Like me, you’re going to hear a number of things on the list and think, “Of course I would never do that.” And you know what, you’re right. As are the other women that thought the same thing about the things you think are just fine.

Everyone has to figure out where they are going to prioritize the risks in pregnancy just as we do in everyday life. All we can guarantee is that down the road we’ll all find out we chose both right and wrong and it’s a miracle any of us are here at all.

Amy Morrison is the broad behind pregnantchicken.com – a resource for new and expectant parents that tries to keep pregnancy fun and exciting without scaring the crap out of you. She lives in Toronto (eh!) with her husband and two little boys. She can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest pinning a plethora of crafts without the time or talent to do any of them.