Congratulations, you are pregnant!
If you’re reading this, you’re probably worried about your pregnancy because it took you by surprise!
But you can relax, because there is the all-or-nothing principle!
The positive pregnancy test caught you off guard and off guard.
In addition to your great joy, you are now also plagued by great worry, because if you had known that you were pregnant, you would have given up that drink last week and the cigarette as well.
You would have paid attention to your diet and avoided various medications.
Because you know that certain foods, like the salami for breakfast this morning, the coffee afterward, and the headache pill earlier, could harm your baby.
Now you’re wondering whether you’ve harmed your unborn child. Don’t worry, I, your gynecologist, or any other medical professional can reassure you, because there’s an all-or-nothing principle.
The truth is that not all mothers really wanted and planned their pregnancy and even if they did, it is impossible to know exactly when it worked.
However, there are also some women who follow certain rules and stick to strict diets when they want to have children.
But, hand on heart, many of us don’t do it and even during pregnancy and later while breastfeeding , we find it difficult to do without certain things that we adults like to consume.
Because we are all just human beings with weaknesses and give in to one thing or another now and then, even if we know it is unhealthy, such as alcohol, cigarettes, fast food , etc.
Sometimes it is not easy to get pregnant and only a few couples manage to get pregnant right away.
It usually takes 3 months to half a year until the two long-awaited lines appear on a pregnancy test.
However, only very few people manage to adjust their lives during this time as if they were pregnant.
In addition to wanted and planned pregnancies, there are also those that surprise us, but that does not mean that they are not welcome.
These are unplanned pregnancies, which are also the topic of my article here.
If the positive pregnancy test surprised you and half your life flashed before your eyes like a movie and you’re now starting to worry, I can reassure you.
Even if you have been living an unhealthy lifestyle in the last few weeks, there is no need to panic, as the all-or-nothing principle applies here.
Breathe a sigh of relief, Mom: It’s all or nothing
The good news first: In the first few days after implantation, you cannot cause any health harm to your baby.
Mother Nature is, as in so many other things, unique.
The purpose of the all-or-nothing principle is to protect your baby – as an embryo – from external influences.
According to this principle, the embryo is either completely spared from any possible damage or – the other extreme – it is aborted.
If the damage during this time is minor, then these damaged cells can be replaced by other or functional ones and if the damage is too severe, then unfortunately the embryo is aborted.
The all-or-nothing law in biology
This is a phenomenon in nature that literally means “all or nothing” when it comes to a life.
This phenomenon is responsible for the fact that when a new life is created, it either responds completely to external stimuli or not at all.
This law states that there are no gradations in how a “cell” will react to an external stimulus, for example, but rather it will either react completely or not at all.
What this means for your pregnancy is that the embryo will either not be harmed at all or will pass away on its own.
All-or-nothing principle – examples
Since your baby (still an embryo until the 5th week of pregnancy) does not yet have any excitable cells such as heart cells or nerve cells at this “young age”, it is, so to speak, protected from external stimuli.
Communication between cells occurs via so-called action potentials, which, however, only mature after the 5th week of pregnancy.
To trigger an action potential, the external stimulus must be extremely strong to trigger a large number of these action potentials, which could, in a sense, cause damage to your embryo.
The more intense the action potential, the greater the probability that your baby will abort on its own and vice versa, if no action potential is generated or the critical threshold of the action potentials is not reached, then a cell remains undamaged.
For you and your baby, this means that it will survive without any health damage because the external stimuli did not trigger enough action potentials.
What is the all-or-nothing principle?
The all-or-nothing principle is, so to speak, a “natural” regulation of pregnancy in the first days after conception.
This in turn means that if the external influences are too strong, a miscarriage will occur, which many women often perceive as a delayed period.
This principle means that if you drink alcohol, smoke or take medication in the first two weeks after conception, the embryo will either be so damaged that it will pass away on its own or it will continue to develop without damage.
If an egg cell is damaged in early pregnancy, the division process is interrupted and the body rejects it before it can implant in the uterus.
However, such an early miscarriage usually goes unnoticed and is perceived by women as a menstrual period.
An undamaged and healthy single cell usually implants itself in the uterus 10 to 14 days after fertilization.
This means that the embryo is not connected to your bloodstream until the 4th week of pregnancy (SSW).
However, the cells of the embryo do not yet have any special functions at this stage of development, which means that easily damaged cells can be replaced by other undamaged and healthy cells.
In this case, we speak of the omnipotence of cells, where certain cell toxins cannot cause any damage.
If the cells have lost their “omnipotence,” your body may not be able to replace damaged cells with new ones, and a miscarriage may occur.
The all-or-nothing principle – until when?
Your embryo’s cells lose their omnipotence from around the 5th week of pregnancy (SSW).
This is the phase where the organ formation of your tiny unborn child begins.
Up to this point, damaged cells could be replaced, but from now on, an unhealthy lifestyle can leave its mark on your unborn baby.
The phase of organ formation lasts until about the 12th week of pregnancy (SSW) and the tiny dwarf is most sensitive to external influences during this phase.
This means that your unhealthy lifestyle during this period can negatively affect your unborn baby.
External disturbances such as toxins are passed on to your unborn child through your bloodstream and cause harm.
This means that from the 5th week of pregnancy (SSW), i.e. immediately after you find out that you are pregnant, you should refrain from smoking and drinking alcohol and may only take medication in consultation with your gynaecologist.
The sooner you find out you’re pregnant, the better, because this allows you to prepare for the pregnancy sooner. You can adjust your diet and lifestyle during pregnancy to eliminate any potential risks.
Final thoughts
Dear expectant mother, I hope that after reading my post you feel a little more reassured.
If your baby has made it this far, it most likely means that you have not caused him any harm.
To be on the safe side, you should still make an appointment with your gynecologist for an examination so that he or she can definitely allay your concerns and, of course, give you guidelines on how to continue your pregnancy.
Just as we adults react differently to stimuli, the same is true for babies and it doesn’t necessarily mean that last week’s cocktail and the cigarette that went with it harmed your baby.
Nature has ensured that life is preserved in the first few weeks, even if the circumstances are not ideal.
But to be on the safe side, it is your responsibility to stay away from opiates and change your unhealthy lifestyle for the time being.
Because now you are responsible for a new, unique life and that is definitely reason enough to pull on the reins and think before you consciously consume something harmful.
I wish you a wonderful pregnancy and lots of luck.
Enjoy the preparations for the birth and have fun shopping for baby things .
