Trombosis<BR><BR>The desire to play a trombone while flying in your 3rd trimester.

PG: I trust your specific question was clearly anwered by "clairobscur".<BR>Just a comment to the others: Thirty years ago, mothers who wanted to breastfeed in California were scorned. Their infants were kept in quarantaine as to not pose any health risk to others. Formula was the way to go.<BR>Today women who rather not, or cannot breastfeed due to circumstances beyond their control are treated as outcasts in the maternity ward.<BR>Why: IMHO the medical profession in the US has a tendency to overreact. Today it's yes, tomorrow it's no. <BR><BR><BR>

...how does one determine if a grocer (or anyone else) is 'knowledgeable'? <BR><BR>How can one know if someone is not passing on misinformation inadvertently? When I'm travelling and I ask for, say, geographic directions, the people I ask seem to be invariably kind and eager to help, but not necessarily accurate. (I've since learned, in critical situations, to ask at least two different people to cross-check the information given.) A grocer, like anyone else, is only passing on information that they might well believe to be true.... but may not be true. For example, recently it transpired in my home community that a sausage product from an independent meat packer had been labelled "100% beef" contained up to 20 per cent pork, a fact unknown by the local grocers distributing the product.

commonsense brings up a good point about medical personnel changing their tune. When we were expecting our first child 30 years ago, my wife was told to avoid salt, to gain less than 20 pounds, and to have a glass of wine with dinner to relax. When she had our last child, 15 years ago, she was told that moderate salt was OK, that it was OK to gain up to 30 pounds, but no wine. <BR><BR>Now that first child of ours is expecting, and she has nothing to go on but common sense. I think she plans to avoid raw-milk cheese but still take baths.

Most of the cheeses sold in France are made with pasteurized milk. When they are not, they are labeled "au lait cru". The French had to fight hard with the rest of the European Community to be allowed to produce soft cheeses from unpasteurized milk. Cheeses "au lait cru" tend to be more expensive, and they taste better.

Sorry Skidoo; it was a technical something. It was the last post I had made and when I hit the "refresh" button, it posted again.<BR><BR>I don't think that has happened to me before, but it happened twice yesterday

To answer PB's question, I don't know why my dr. recommended no more than 12 oz of fish per week -- she didn't explain that one. It may have something to do with the very recent (in the last year) warning in the US about certain kinds of fish containing high levels of methyl mercurcy -- which can be dangerous to a the brain of a developing fetus. PG women are now counseled to avoid tilefish, swordfish, and one other (I can't remember) and to limit tuna consumption. Perhaps the 12 oz of all fish per week was simply to avoid the possibility of eating local fish in France that also contain large amounts of mercury. In any event, I will follow up.<BR><BR>Thanks for all of the helpful advice about pasteurized vs. unpasteurized cheeses, undercooked eggs, etc. For those of you who feel the need to pooh-pooh the advice given by obstetricians, feel free to take whatever risks you wish when you (or your wives) are pregnant. But for me and my husband, who have been greatly anticipating this child, we will take the advice that *my* OB gives me for *my* situation.

Why exactly did you post this question in the first place ?

The latest word on fish to avoid because of mercury are swordfish, shark and marlin (added last week, I believe) -- logically, the guys at the top of the food chain, where the mercury would accumulate. The 12 ounces is the FDA's recommended average weekly intake for pregnant women.<BR><BR>http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/admehg.html<BR><BR>http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWER.../ANS01065.html

It is incroyable that a question ABOUT CHEESE has sparked such a controversy, including the nasties. I wonder what would have happened had the poster merely asked which cheeses are pasteurized/unpasteurized. As Gretchen pointed out, she was NOT asking for obstetrical advice or any kind of advice, merely factual info re CHEESE. Adieu!

Maman asks: &lt;I wonder what would have happened had the poster merely asked which cheeses are pasteurized/unpasteurized&gt;<BR><BR>Actually, I thought that's what she DID ask. But she wasn't being so presumptuous as to demand definitive answers from fellow travel board posters, so she asked whether anyone had any "thoughts" on this, i.e. on how to determine which chesses were pasteurized/unpasteurized. This was an interesting discussion, despite much nastiness and arrogant pontificating.

I'm French and once in a while, my friends and I, organize a d&icirc;ner de cons. When we can't find any good cons, we come to this forum to toy with the Americans. This cheese thing was great Fun.

A d&icirc;ner de cons= a game played by nasty bored people which involves inviting obnoxious or stupid fools to a dinner party without letting them know that they are being invited in order to be the subject of ridicule, and of competing with each other over who invited the biggest jerk. <BR><BR>(P.S. Let's not assume that Didier is French.)

Didier was the character in the French film the Dinner Game about asking someone to dinner and mocking him all night as entertainment by bored,self centered,conceited men..is that you,"Didier"?He was played by the French film star Theirry Lhermitte.

Whoever invites Didier wins, HANDS DOWN!!!!

Barzaletta! LOL-good one

...and my heart goes out to you, Didier, because the tables got turned on the would-be victimizer. In the film, and evidently on the board, too.

Didier<BR><BR>There was a similar occurrence in real life and the dunce pulled a gun and shot the Didier character in the balls. Didn't kill him but maimed him for life. Dunce got off on insanity plea.

Good thing Didier can hide in cyberspace.

From what I've heard about Didier the dunce will have to be an expert marksman to hit that little target.