Episode 180 - Protecting yourself from microplastics in pregnancy
[0:00] Welcome to the Great Birth Rebellion podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Melanie Jackson. I'm a clinical and research midwife with my PhD.
[0:08] In each episode, I cast a critical eye over current maternity care practice by grappling with research and historical knowledge to help you get the best out of your pregnancy, birth, and postpartum journey. Welcome to today's episode of the Great Birth Rebellion podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Melanie Jackson. I'm a midwife here in Australia, and I can confirm that today is the first time ever that I've ever spoken publicly about this particular issue. Not to my friends, not to my clients, really to nobody. It's an environmental issue that impacts all people, but also in particular, Pregnant Women and Their Babies. And I've been researching this topic for my new book, A Guide to a Great Pregnancy. It's not out yet. I'm still writing it. But as I've been exploring environmental issues that affect pregnant women and their babies, I've realized that this issue is bigger than even I considered. And I considered myself a conscious, environmentally aware person. And it wasn't until I started researching for this book on environmental hazards did I even realize how big the problem was.
[1:22] And I want to offer some ways to avoid environmental and external hazards and the impact that they might have on your health while you're pregnant. So this could potentially be a really gloomy episode, but this podcast, this Great Birth Rebellion podcast is not just about posing problems and having a big rant and a whinge. I'm not going to just offer you doom and gloom today, I'm going to also give you solutions and strategies on how to deal with this environmental hazard. So this is what I'll do for you today, explain the issue of environmental.
[1:59] Microplastics, but also give you some practical tips and strategies on how you can reduce the impact of microplastics on your own health in pregnancy and prevent them getting to your baby. So as I said, I have never... Spoken to my clients about this and our profession, the midwifery profession and maternity care professionals, we don't actually have any formal advice on what we should tell our clients or what we need to tell women about the issue of microplastics. It's really a newly identified issue. So today I'm going to share what I've learned about microplastics and nanoplastics and how they might affect you and your baby. More importantly, I'll explain ways that you can protect yourself and your developing baby from microplastics because as you'll hear today almost all babies and placentas nowadays contain microplastics. This is the new information and I'm going to explain the steps that you can take to help prevent microplastics from getting into your baby. So this is a fraught issue and I actually don't believe that it will be addressed by world leaders or agencies or organizations because if we do start to fully discover the health impact of microplastics on your health, on developing babies, on fertility, whatever it is.
[3:26] Governments are then required to act and solve the problem. But the cynical part of me believes that there are probably very few government groups or governments who have an interest in solving the problem of microplastics. So firstly, we may never know how we are affected by microplastics because this is very inconvenient information to have. If you admit there's a problem, then you are also obligated to try and fix it. And sometimes problems are conveniently avoided in order to also avoid having to take responsibility for fixing it. So there are organisations that are supposed to monitor for microplastics in our food supply and currently the Food Standards Authority in Australia and New Zealand and Europe are, state that their current view is that plastic contamination of the food chain is unlikely to result in immediate health risks to consumers. So they've admitted, yes, there's plastic in the food supply.
[4:28] Their view is supported by the European Food Safety Associations, which also consider that while further work is required, it seems unlikely that microplastics are harmful to consumers.
[4:41] That's where our food standards authorities sit on the matter. But we are going to talk about that and more in this episode, including the practical strategies for how to avoid exposure, consumption, inhalation, absorption of micro and nanoplastics. But before we do that, in the interest of keeping this podcast completely free to you, the listener, I would like to thank doula and hypnobirth practitioner Poppy Child from Pop That Mama for sponsoring this episode. Poppy is a doula and hypnobirth educator, and she's developed this online birth box, and it includes something called the oxytocin bubble.
[5:20] And if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you will know me. I am very picky about what I will endorse. I am not big on overconsumption of things during pregnancy, but I do get behind the work that Poppy is doing with the birth box, and I will happily recommend it. And what I love about the birth box is how practical it is, not only for birth, but it also teaches you tools for working through hard things in pregnancy and then in your life with kids afterwards. And it's all about giving you knowledge, confidence, mindset, skills that actually work when the big day of birth comes, but also in the days that will follow. And there's a little cherry on top in the birth box called the oxytocin bubble, which is a full album of soundtracks to guide you through labor and help you stay in the zone so Poppy can be with you all the way through labor. The birth box has been rated five stars across the board. and with my code MELANIE, you'll get 25% off. So if you're preparing for birth, go check it out.
[6:25] It's all in the show notes. You'll be so glad you did. Okay, let's get into this episode on microplastics in pregnancy and how to keep them out of you and your baby. First, I'll explain the issue and what is going on, and then I can cover off how you can keep yourself safe.
[6:42] Now, what science is now discovering is that not only do we have a problem with plastic pollution from the plastic you can see, so bottles, big pieces of plastic everywhere, we now have a global problem of plastic pollution from micro and nanoplastics. So they're tiny plastic particles, some you can barely see.
[7:06] And microplastics and nanoplastics are derived from either when plastic degrades or disintegrates in nature. Plastic never truly disappears. It doesn't like dissolve into nothing. It dissolves into particles. And that's what these microplastics are. They were either originally made to be less than five millimeters in size, such as microbeads, which are found in some beauty and personal care products, or they've disintegrated down to that size or smaller. So if you use things like facial products that are designed to scrub or exfoliate your skin, it's possible that that product contains tiny microplastic beads that act as the exfoliant and they can enter your body during the treatment, you know, just accidentally through your mouth. They're too big to be absorbed through your skin or inhaled, but probably if you would consume them. But worse than that is that when you wash that off, it goes into the water supply and out into the ocean. Ultimately, it ends up in the water supply creating plastic pollution. And it's small enough pieces of plastic to be ingested by sea life. There have been studies about plastic pollution in the ocean, but also microplastic pollution.
[8:27] And microplastic is now a percentage component of the seafloor. It actually has, it's making up part of the seafloor and in some areas of the ocean plastics make up a greater content percentage than actual natural seafloor. So there's no doubt that micro and nanoplastic pollution is real, it's pervasive and it's in our food chain. So we've come to know that microplastics are now found almost everywhere in the world, including the snow and water at the top of Mount Everest and in the deepest part of the ocean in the Mariana Trench. So truly nowhere on earth is safe from microplastic contamination in the modern age. This is the world we exist in now. This is the world in which we conceive, grow, birth and feed our babies. And as a result of this ubiquitous presence of microplastics over the world, it has come to also not be just a part of our planet, but a part of our bodies, a part of human bodies. So I'll talk about the science of that in a minute. But we know now that microplastics can now enter our body and they don't just pass through. They stay.
[9:45] Given the spread of microplastics that are now found in the soil, the sea, where our food grows, the water we use on our food supply and the water that we drink, it's in our food chain, but it's also in the air. So what science is discovering is that when we inhale or consume microplastics, they don't just pass through our bodies and get moved down and out. They have the ability to remain in our body, and there's no real way for our body to process and eliminate it. It's not like a compound that can be broken down and eliminated.
[10:22] We do have the ability to eliminate some toxins, but our body doesn't have an inbuilt process for removing microplastics. So if they get in there, there's almost no way to get them out. And so scientists have discovered that when plastic enters our body, it can traverse the digestive system, the respiratory system, and end up in our bloodstream to be carried around our bodies and deposited within our organs. And there has been some research about if there is ill health that results from this, which we'll get to. But for now, the point you need to know is firstly, that microplastics are polluting the earth and our food, water and air, and they are contained within products that we might use daily. You might use plastic-based products daily on and in our bodies. They're everywhere on earth and we interact with them. And the second thing we know is that microplastics can get into our bodies and are inside our bodies. We've found them. They're in our bloodstream. They've found them in organs.
[11:24] Those are the first two things to know. And if you're still not terrified yet, hang in there. I'm not going to try and terrify you more. I'm trying to give you information about how to keep you safe from this. This is Miss Me explaining the landscape of the problem.
[11:38] So there is a growing body of research about the impact of microplastics on the human body. And our subject matter, the interest of the Great Birth Rebellion podcast, is how this impacts women and their babies. So today in this episode we will talk about microplastics in pregnancy and what that means for you and your baby. So what we need to first know is, is that science is sure about one thing. Microplastics have been found in placentas, the cord blood of babies, which the cord blood is your baby's blood, in amniotic fluid in meconium, which is your baby's first poo, and that forms before they're born.
[12:21] Microplastics have been found in the ovaries of women and the sperm of men and also in breast milk and infant formula. this means that every part of the reproductive cycle is invaded by microplastics.
[12:35] We also now know that microplastics can cross the placenta and be implanted within it but also plastics can move from your bloodstream into your baby's bloodstream. We know this because the baby excretes some of this plastic in its first poo in the meconium and we also know that amniotic fluid is actually made by your baby and so if there's microplastics in the amniotic fluid there's also microplastics in your baby and in 2020 scientists began to become aware of the impact of microplastics on pregnant women and their babies with the discovery of microplastics within human placenters for the first time so this was only first discovered in 2020 and the research paper on this study was released in 2021. It's called Plastic Center, First Evidence of Microplastics in Human Placenta. And you can read it. It's in the resource folder. So if you're on the mailing list for this podcast, you can get on the mailing list at melaniethemidwife.com. If you're on the mailing list for this podcast, every week I send out the resources for each podcast episode. So you can actually read these papers for yourself. And if you join the mailing list, you'll get access to the bat catalogue. All the other episodes, you can access the research and use that for your own knowledge. But this particular study, this was done in 2021 in Italy, and they looked at six human placentas.
[13:59] They collected them from consenting women that had physiological pregnancies and births, and they analysed the placentas to evaluate the presence of microplastics. In total, 12 microplastic fragments were found in four placentas, so four of the six.
[14:17] Five of those fragments were on the fetal side, on the baby side. Four were in the maternal side, and three were in the membranes of the placenta. Four out of the six collected placentas contain plastics. So partly this tells you firstly how common microplastic contamination is, but also it is possible to avoid it because two of the placentas didn't contain plastic.
[14:44] But from this study, we also know that the placenta is not an effective barrier against plastic contamination in the mother's body. It can pass through to the baby from the placenta because plastic was found on the fetal side of the placenta also. There have been other studies done since this one in a very similar way.
[15:07] And one study collected 17 placentas and unfortunately found plastic in all of them. So now we know that microplastics can get into us and into our babies and the baby's placenta. And scientists have been interested in understanding how embedded plastics have come to get into our bodies in the first place. And then how they get into our babies. And then also how and if they affect our health. So the 2021 study was more interested in just discovering if plastics were there. But they did make a comment about the fact that certain chemicals or materials in plastic are known to have an endocrine disrupting effect. So what that means is it can mess with your hormones. The endocrine system is in charge of hormonal regulation of your body. And this is an important consideration for pregnancy, but also fertility because both of those things are hormonally governed, including labor and birth. So if microplastics are in our bodies and we have some understanding that microplastics are endocrine disruptors, hormone disruptors, any part of our bodies that require a specific hormonal structure or process could be affected. You can see the depth of the problem here.
[16:31] But let's start with understanding how microplastics get into your body in the first place. And this will give you some advice on how to avoid overexposing yourself to the microplastics around you. So there's three main ways that people are exposed to microplastics. Firstly, through ingestion of polluted food and water and particularly seafood. But also we know that soil now contains microplastics and this can be drawn up into food. the inhalation of microplastics through the air. Often these are nanoplastics, we might not even be able to see them. And through direct skin contact with things such as synthetic clothing, a lot of our clothing is made of plastic. Artificial fibers are mostly made of plastic, but also beauty products that contain plastics. So what we know for sure is that humans ingest, inhale and collect microplastics through direct skin contact. Once in the body, microplastics are and can be transported and deposited through the lungs via the digestive system and into the bloodstream. And then the bloodstream circulates the plastic to every part of your body.
[17:48] Now, the Australian and New Zealand Food Standards Organisation's current belief is that plastic contamination of the food chain is unlikely to result in immediate health risks to consumers. That's what they say. And this view appears to be supported by the European Food Safety Authority, which also considers that while further work is required, it seems unlikely that microplastics are harmful to consumers. However, I have my doubts with even a rudimentary reading of some of the current literature about the impact of microplastics on the human body. I am suspicious about this claim that microplastics don't seem to be harmful to consumers, but that is what the current advice is. So research indicates that microplastics as a newly recognized environmental hazard has identifiable concerns for pregnant women and their developing babies. So there are already animal studies in existence.
[18:51] That speak to the detrimental effects of microplastics on the mammalian microbiome, so the bacterial makeup of your body, but also inflammatory markers. And scientists have been aware for a long time that substances within plastics have endocrine and hormone-disrupting effects on humans. So there are already animal studies going on to see what happens to mice once you introduce plastic to their diet and they ingest it and it becomes part of their makeup, what happens? What they already know is that it's got an impact on the microbiome and inflammatory markers as a starter. And there was a most recent review done by a team of researchers in India and it was released in 2025 and it's called Examining the Hidden Dangers, Understanding How Microplastics Affect Pregnancy. The authors brought together evidence from over 120 research papers That's how many references they had for their article. And they reiterated the knowledge in their paper that micro and nanoplastics are found in the majority of maternal and fetal bloodstreams, digestive system, amniotic fluid, placenta, meconium, breast milk, but also in infant formula.
[20:09] And they highlight that microplastics have the capacity to enter our bodies and be deposited within our bodies and that of our babies. The authors identified some known results of the presence of microplastics in the human body, and they also cited the endocrine and hormonal disturbance, immune and inflammatory responses, the development of granulomas, oxidative stress, and microplastic impact upon the microbiome. So some studies also indicated a correlation between microplastic concentration in the amniotic fluid and preterm birth. So animal studies have also shown that maternal exposure to microplastics can lead to reduction in the weight of the babies and possible growth restriction.
[20:59] So there's already, while the research is in its infancy, already some information coming out to suggest that microplastics can impact upon the health of mothers and their babies.
[21:12] While the research is in its infancy, I think any thinking person can postulate that having plastic circulated and embedded in our bodies is going to have some kind of impact upon our health and human development. So exactly what that impact is remains to be seen, remains to be discovered, and exactly how much plastic can our bodies contain before we start to see the impact. There's got to be a toxic level somewhere, but what is that? We don't know. And midwives and maternity care providers, though, have not been given any guidance as to what we should tell women in healthcare about the dangers of microplastics, because as it seems, the dangers are not fully understood yet, but we do often inform women of the dangers of environmental hazards, like high mercury levels in fish, carbon monoxide in the air, secondhand smoke. It's not out of our scope to be informing women about the external hazards that exist around them on their pregnancy.
[22:12] So potentially in the future, the impact and concern about microplastics might find its way into maternity care education. However, at the moment, it's not. Women don't get spoken to about this. But if the idea of having plastic in your body, placenta, amniotic fluid, breast milk, or baby is alarming to you, here are some ways that you can reduce your ingestion, inhalation, and absorption of microplastics. Firstly.
[22:42] Avoid single-use plastics, drink bottles, anything that would be thrown away after its first use. Consider also tea bags. Tea bags are often made up of synthetic materials, glues, and plastics that leach into your cup of tea. There is a list, if you Google online, there is a list of tea bag suppliers or brands that don't contain plastic. But an easier way is you could switch to leaf tea and use the stainless steel tea strainer as an alternative so in our household we use these little single-use baskets and you open up the little metal basket and you put your tea leaves in and then you close it up and you use it like a tea bag but you can wash it and use it again there's no plastic in it there's there's no waste and then the tea leaves go into our worm farm so the full cycle is all there so that's one thing avoid single-use plastics.
[23:41] The next thing you can do is choose beauty and self-care products that don't contain microbeads. So, favorite products that use natural exfoliants or abrasives instead of synthetic ones. Now, there is so much information out there on how to make your own natural beauty products as well. So, have a look. Do an audit of the health products or the beauty products that you have on your shelf, have a look. Do any of the ingredients sound like plastic? If so, you may be inadvertently daily exposing yourself to microplastics and you didn't even know. Next thing you can do is eat a diet, low in process and package foods, which are more likely to be contaminated with microplastics. Avoid drinking from plastic bottles and use non-plastic food containers. So you could choose glass or stainless steel.
[24:34] Read the product labels of all of your self-care and beauty products and avoid ingredients such as polyethylene and polypropylene. They are plastic-derived ingredients. So next thing I already said, consider the stock take of all of your beauty products. Also consider your toothpaste. So if your toothpaste has abrasive little particles that are designed to sort of scrub your teeth, they are made of plastic. and they're tiny and you're putting it in your mouth and then you're spitting it down into the ocean. So have a look at your toothpaste. The next thing you can do is choose natural clothing fibers such as cotton, wool, bamboo and hemp over synthetic fibers. So synthetic clothing is thread made from plastic and it sheds microfibers and microplastics during washing and wearing.
[25:28] And so also consider this when you are clothing your baby. If you want to reduce your baby's exposure to microplastics, consider natural fibres over synthetic ones. This list is by no means exhaustive because we don't know the full extent of the issue of microplastics. We don't fully understand what they're in and where they are. Nonetheless, you get the idea that there are things you can do from an individual
[25:55] level to help reduce your own exposure to microplastics during pregnancy and then forever after. And I do sincerely hope that I'm overreacting about the potential impact of microplastics on humankind, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm not.
[26:14] And if you'd like to read some of the research that I've spoken about in this episode, please do go to melaniethemidwife.com and sign up to the podcast mailing list and you'll get immediate access to that resource folder and all the research articles that I use to create this podcast episode. You'll also get them for previous episodes. And one last thing before I go, if you are pregnant and planning to give birth without pain medication, I've created a guide to helping you to give birth without pain medication. And it's designed for you if you want all facts, no fluff tips on how to get through labor and birth without pain medication and also how to help your partner or support people, help you get through labor and birth without pain medication. That's what this guide is for. So the link below in the show notes will take you straight there. You can click the link, get the guide, and you'll have all the tips you need to give birth without pain medication. I've been a midwife for 18 years, and the majority of my work has been with women who give birth at home, and they don't have access to pain medication. So I've seen the strategies that work to get through labor and birth without pain relief, and I've put them all in the guide. So click the link below and get the guide for yourself so you can increase your chances of getting through your labor and birth without pain medication.
[27:38] That has been this week's short and sweet but somewhat terrifying episode of the Great Birth Rebellion podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Melanie Jackson. I'll see you in the next episode of the Great Birth Rebellion.
[27:52] To get access to the resources for each podcast episode, join the mailing list at melaniethemidwife.com, And to support the work of this podcast, wear The Rebellion in the form of clothing and other merch at thegreatbirthrebellion.com. Follow me, Mel, @MelanietheMidwife on socials and the show @TheGreatBirthRebellion. All the details are in the show notes.
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