I’m running and not in the Run Disney stuff. Soooo no. 
and I’m doing it mainly so I can gorge myself on mickey cookies, ice cream and every other snack that I apparently never enjoyed when I was a child.
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That’s not selfish. Selfish would be getting pregnant and still riding all the rides and drinking all the drinks.
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I used to joke that I “run so I can eat”, but now that I’m training for a long race it’s a bit different. I’m actually starting to think about “race nutrition”. Not a fun state of mind, especially when planning all of the yummy meals in The World.
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I have reached that happy age where I have to watch what I eat for fear of dire consequences, of which turning into a lard ball is only one.
Actually, I reached that point some time ago. The point I have no reached is that I now acknowledge and admit that I have reached that happy age where I have to watch what I eat.
Since the slope is downhill from here, I feel less guilty about blowing all my savings on WDW trips. Getting old(er) holds no interest for me. Let me have my fun now, and then let me die of a massive heart-attack sometime in the next 15 or so years.
Amen to that. Excellent observation.
We" timed" one of our kids for a certain window of time, and it worked out great. But still… you gotta wonder… if we hadn’t- we’d have a whole different kid
Maybe I think too much? Could be.
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This is where my faith comes in…God has chosen the kids he wants me to have, regardless of any plans I may come up with! Which also means he can jack up my trip with an earlier pregnancy if He so chooses. Gotta take the good with the bad and all that.
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There have been no studies that prove amusement park rides are dangerous to pregnant women. Not even surveys that show a correlation. Nothing. It’s all conjecture based on the fact that women sometimes miscarry after car accidents. I hope I don’t need to explain that the g forces in car accidents, even minor ones, are much higher than the most intense ride at Disney. You can get whiplash and spinal injuries from even a minor car wreck—that doesn’t happen on roller coasters, which are designed with safety in mind. The only people who have been hurt on Disney coasters had heart conditions.
Will I be riding Space Mountain? No, but mostly because I don’t enjoy the really high speed coasters. Will I be riding Seven Dwarfs, Barnstormer, Pirates, Soarin’, etc.? Absolutely. America has has this weird obsession with telling pregnant women they can’t do things that the rest of the world is chill about—and I for one am pretty damn tired of people thinking it is any of their business. It isn’t selfish for pregnant women to engage in activities that have not been shown, even in a pilot study, to be dangerous.
What amazes me is how selective people are about this kind of thing. They claim to just care about the pregnant lady and her baby—but last time I was at Disney, I had to stand for over an hour on a crowded bus while visibly pregnant and not a single person offered me their seat. That’s fine, I’m not entitled to a seat—but it might be a sign that in our society, people only care about pregnant women when it gives them a chance to act pious and accuse pregnant women of not sacrificing enough for their unborn child.
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This isn’t quite true.
I remember when the fatality happened on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
But, to your point, none of the accidents at Disney had anything to do with pregnancy!
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Thanks for correcting me! I should have double checked. It’s fair to say that most Disney injuries are the result of one of the following:
- A pre-existing health condition (which is usually heart related)
- Guests not following the safety protocol
- A malfunction of the ride
In any case, we should remember that the greatest threat (by far) to pregnant women are cars. But strangely, no one is advocating for Teslas on behalf of pregnant women or asking how we can maximize pregnant women’s safety on the road with a different kind of seat belt or what have you. Instead, people lecture pregnant women for eating deli meat.
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I’ve tried and tried to find accurate (ie - not anecdotal) information around this and I haven’t found much. I did read somewhere that the main risk is placental abruption in the event of an emergency stop on the ride. So early pregnancy, when the placenta hasn’t even formed, should be ok. But man, when you start googling you basically get a lot of opinionated people telling you that you are going to kill your baby. So for me, in early pregnancy, I’d feel ok riding most anything. Further along, I would be more hesitant, but I wouldn’t judge someone else for their choices. Everything is a calculated risk. Getting in the car to drive to the airport or Disney is probably a bigger risk than riding a ride.
All that being said, I still don’t want to go to Disney pregnant! The drinking is the other half of the equation for me. I’m not actually much of a drinker, a glass or two of wine here and there, but when I’m on vacation I like to have 2 - 4 drinks per day. Usually nothing too strong, a boozy milkshake or coffee drink as I walk around the park, a glass of wine or two with dinner. And while I don’t abstain from alcohol while pregnant (a glass of wine here or there), I do think my vacation style of drinking is too much during pregnancy.
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I don’t think the rest of the world is chill with pregnant women riding rollercoasters. Here in the UK, if there are warnings for health conditions then there are warnings for pregnant women too. And I’ve seen that in every theme park I’ve been to in Spain etc. If you choose to ignore the warnings, that’s up to you but the park has covered its back by suggesting you don’t ride.
Did the people on the bus who didn’t give up their seat also tell you that they care about a pregnant woman and her baby in another context? Maybe those folks didn’t care in any context? How do you know it is the same people?
I certainly wasn’t telling anyone what they should or shouldn’t do. I have a right to express my opinion that I think certain behavior is selfish (though in this context, I was not replying to the poster that she was being selfish). You have your opinion (which you are full entitled to). I have mine. Others have theirs. If you are tired of hearing other people’s opinions, then don’t read their posts.
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That’s right. You have to roll with it, no matter what.
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It all comes down to the precautionary principle: Primum non nocere.
First, do no harm.
There will never be an adequate study of pregnancy and carnival rides. Just like most of our medications have never, and will never, be tested on pregnant women, even though they are often used for pregnant women. (The exception to this would be things specifically for pregnancy, which by and large are pretty well-studied).
All you can do is accumulate data and look retroactively to see what happened to those women who did use a medication or ride a ride, and that’s a second-rate study that takes a great deal of data- which for most things we will never have. Though we do have those studies for the more common medications.
So then one has to rely on a calculation of possible risk vs. possible benefit. For many medications and other treatments the benefits obviously outweigh the risk. We don’t let pregnant people die from appendicitis because we’re afraid of the anesthetics.
But sometimes the risk and benefit ratio is not so clear cut. In that case, the fallback position is often the precautionary principle. Some people are more cautious than others.
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When I was running regular, and doing significant distance, I hardly ever drank alcohol(slowed me down next day) and really watched my intake of different foods that would either weigh me down or “derail” me 
And I was always about drinking water.
It’s hard to be in that mentality a lot, but it’s important. Good on you
Break out the popcorn. It’s about to get snacky in here.
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Yup. And from that, neither mother nor baby have much hope of recovering with out incredibly prompt intervention.
Worth the risk? NFW
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I would agree with that.
Although these kinds of things can be a real sticky wicket, when, say, you have a rancher for a patient. Their livelihood might depend on being in situations that are not safe. I once operated on a mid-trimester lady who was gored by a bull. It all turned out okay, but those are the hard choices. Carnival rides, not so much.
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Did you ever see the movie Along Came Polly? Perhaps not one of the greatest cinematic creations ever, but it was a fun way to address this topic. There are too many factors to ever truly run a cost/benefit analysis on every decision/action. At the end of the day, you take the information you have and make the decision you are comfortable with.
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Precisely.
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