Can prego's shoot

OP -

Here you have two conflicting opinions;

Mildcustom2 says it's a bad idea from his experience and that it did cause negative repercussions to his child.

My wife (with daughter) (and I will add two other woman and 4 other children) shot/attended the range throughout their pregnancies with no ill effects.

Who's right? Who knows.....



I posit that, when it comes down to it, until more actual studies on human (not sheep) subjects are performed (which is probably not going to happen any time soon), you're going to end up with half the people saying it's okay, and the other half saying it's dangerous. Ultimately it's not a 'yes' or 'no' answer.

If your wife shoots and nothing bad happens, you'll think that it's safe.
If your wife shoots, and something happens to the child, even if it's completely unrelated to shooting, you'll always have that nagging wonder if it contributed.
 
mildcustom2 said:
The complications that can arise from shooting while your misses is pregnant go much further than just hearing. Think what those sound vibrations do to a fetus in a woman womb submerged in fluid. Think what this can do to brain development. Also the chemical discharge from a round going off combined with the lead is extremely hazardous to the fetus and its development. Whatever environmental conditions your women experiences the fetus experiences. Whatever chemicals your woman's body takes in the fetus also takes in. All these can have a very negative impact on fetus development.

I found out these things the hard way and this is going much further into it than I'd like too but if it helps prevent one person from having to go through what me and my misses went through than its worth bringing it up.

9 months is not too long to wait for the health of your child and the development of your child for the future.
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I would tend to agree with MC. I'm the furthest thing from a safety Sally, but in the scenario in question I would err on the side of caution.
 
If there was a strong correlation between the sound of gunshots and hearing damage in unborn foetus's I am fairly confident that it would be well documented by now and a google search would lead to papers on the subject.
 
When that question was put to our obstetrician, he asked "Why would you willing give a loaded gun to a pregnant woman?".

(His recommendation was no later in the pregnancy, but the early part of the pregnancy was fine, I don't recall the time to quit shooting.)
 
a few facts

In most European countries, health regulations forbid pregnant women from working in surroundings with a continuous noise level greater than 80dB or a rapid-impulse noise level greater than 40dB, which is much less than the noise of a firearm. The sound levels of firearms are about 125-140dB for rimfire pistols, and 150 to 160 dB for centerfire rifles,pistols, and shotguns.

Intrauterine measurements showed the fetus was not significantly protected against loud noises.


Noise exposure during pregnancies has been associated with the following:

intrauterine growth retardation
miscarriage
preterm delivery
hearing loss in babies and children
altered fetal immune response in the fetus
fetal hypertension

Reference: The Pregnant Officer, F. Czarnecki,MD .Clinics in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Volume 3,Issue 3,p.641-648, August 2003.

Get your obstetrician to look it up, unfortunately most docs don't shoot.

I trust this claries matters some for you. If it were my wife and baby, they would be nowhere near gunfire until proper hearing protection could be used and in the case of the child that would be at the age the child could shoot. Even at that age I would keep the child away from ranges where muzzle brakes were likely to be encountered. Once hearing is lost, it is gone FOREVER.
 
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I've read the above 'study' (it's not actually a study, more of a compilation of information from different sources, very little of it shooting oriented).





Someone should get a hold of Kari Byron from Mythbusters and find out how her kid is doing. She did quite a bit of shooting (and blowing stuff up) while pregnant.


........would make a good episoide.......Grant would probably faint
 
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Tell her she can't and see what happens.
How are you going to damage hearing through several solid inches or more of mommy? The exposure to lead in an indoor range is really far less than everybody thinks too.
 
prudence, above all do no harm

*MALICE* said:
I've read the above 'study' (it's not actually a study, more of a compilation of information from different sources, very little of it shooting oriented).

I am well aware the paper was not a study, the data given above is from published studies all referenced in the article. I figured if one went to source then one could track down the original papers and check whether their methodology and statistical analysis was acceptable. If I were legally liable for a pregnant employee and their fetus I would not allow workplace exposure to firearm discharge with the information in the above report in print. There will never be a controlled study of the impact of firearm discharge noise on human pregnancy/fetuses as no such study would pass the review of a research ethics committee. Risk vs benefit would suggest to me that avoiding exposure to any and all risks in pregnancy as humanly possible is the best policy to advise. However, grownups can do what ever they please.
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sunray said:
Tell her she can't and see what happens.
How are you going to damage hearing through several solid inches or more of mommy? The exposure to lead in an indoor range is really far less than everybody thinks too.
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What happens to sound as it passes through water? What's the fetus surrounded by?

Think about it.
 
mildcustom2 said:
What happens to sound as it passes through water? What's the fetus surrounded by?

Think about it.
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I've also read information (sadly, I don't remember where i read it to quote it, so take that/it for what it's worth) that the skin and fat layer helps deflect a portion of that sound. before reaching the water.

I would imagine the position of a pregnant woman to the muzzle would have varying effects too. Along the lines that when silencer/supressor manufacturers do their db testing, placement of the testing equipment varies the reading substantially.



Again, not being confrontational :) , but no one has opined on woman getting behind the wheel of a car while pregnant. Lot's of potential for risk...........
 
mildcustom2 said:
What happens to sound as it passes through water? What's the fetus surrounded by?

Think about it.
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Sound originating in water is transmitted very well. I'm more interested in the loss occurring at the transition point between air and skin/clothing. Whatever gets through that point will be transferred efficiently to the innards. With only speculation to go on (no significant data I found on this yet), I'd say the loss is significant at the transition point, especially with clothing on.

Some ideas for testing this:
1. Hold a gun directly over a pool of water, with someone submerged in there and fire it. See if they find the shot to be loud.
2. Get some pork bellies (more-or-less the thickness of the abdomen on a human), use them as 'ear-muffs' and see how well it blocks the report. Don't forget to fill your ears with water first. This should be a reasonable simulation of the unborn child's scenario.

I await the results. After testing number two, you've got some bacon to cut too ;)
 
I did not let my wife shoot while pregnant. Did not seem worth it, after all, many say that babies can hear music and voices while in the uterus so why on earth expose them to loud noises like gunshots.
 
My wife & I are awaiting the birth of our first child. We did not have an easy time of things... As such, we chose for her not to shoot until the baby is born. And, my wife really really wanted to go hunting... But, we chose to wait. IMHO it is simply not worth the risk.

Best wishes.

Jay
 
Personally I wouldn't take a chance and I don't think it's a good idea to shoot while pregnant.

Why risk war damage/lead contamination to your unborn child for a hobby??? I like guns, but it's just a hobby ;) your child ears are far more important.

It's possible that it's safe but why take a chance. Imagine if something was wrong with your kid and the doc day that IT COULD BE related to your wife shooting???
 
If I can hear a heart valve clicking open and shut through the inches of skin fat and bone of the human chest, I would imagine the hearing protection of the mothers abdomen is next to nothing when it comes to gunshots.
 
Yeah don't chance it as others have said. God forbid there are any complications, would you ever stop thinking what if I didn't go to the range? Is that what caused it? Minor to major complications in child birth are not out of the ordinary so why risk it?
 
*MALICE* said:
I've also read information (sadly, I don't remember where i read it to quote it, so take that/it for what it's worth) that the skin and fat layer helps deflect a portion of that sound. before reaching the water.

I would imagine the position of a pregnant woman to the muzzle would have varying effects too. Along the lines that when silencer/supressor manufacturers do their db testing, placement of the testing equipment varies the reading substantially.



Again, not being confrontational :) , but no one has opined on woman getting behind the wheel of a car while pregnant. Lot's of potential for risk...........
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You are not involved in a collision everytime you drive. You are 100% assured to be exposed to damaging levels of sound when you choose to shoot.

Weak analogy.
 
relic38 said:
Sound originating in water is transmitted very well. I'm more interested in the loss occurring at the transition point between air and skin/clothing. Whatever gets through that point will be transferred efficiently to the innards. With only speculation to go on (no significant data I found on this yet), I'd say the loss is significant at the transition point, especially with clothing on.

Some ideas for testing this:
1. Hold a gun directly over a pool of water, with someone submerged in there and fire it. See if they find the shot to be loud.
2. Get some pork bellies (more-or-less the thickness of the abdomen on a human), use them as 'ear-muffs' and see how well it blocks the report. Don't forget to fill your ears with water first. This should be a reasonable simulation of the unborn child's scenario.

I await the results. After testing number two, you've got some bacon to cut too ;)
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By your theory the indigestion I experience in my stomach I hear must be of nuclear proportions then.
 
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