Yikes

I'm about halfway through this book called Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of our Lives. If I had read this before having a kid, I'm not sure I could have brought myself to have a baby. The world is a scary place. Don't get me wrong, the book is not alarmist at all. (This is what reviewers called What to Expect When You're Expecting, and it was that label alone that made me stay far away from that book while pregnant, but I digress.) At each month (i.e. chapter), the author looks at things that might potentially harm the baby. In "Four Months" this sentence stopped me in my tracks: "The umbilical cords of newborn babies contain an average of two hundred industrial chemicals."

Holy F---, that seems like a lot.