Women shooting while pregnant?

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ejpk

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I have a daughter who is interested in taking the NRA Basic Pistol course which includes 2 hours of range time. She is 5 months pregnant, and someone told her that "NRA rules prohibit shooting range for pregnant women!"
I have never heard of such a rule nor any particular problem with shooting while pregnant. What say you experts?:confused:
 
We've asked some of our shooting expectant mothers to put their range time on hold until the baby's born.

Several concerns, from sound waves transferring through the non-compressible amniotic fluid, to the rather serious elevated lead levels risk.
 
As well as what Sam1911 mentioned, lead exposure could be a concern as well. I would also guess that the cleaning solvents probably aren't great for you either. Again, I'm just guessing, I am not a doctor.
 
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Here's a link:

http://iweb.tntech.edu/cpardue/pregnant.html

There are others with similar analyses.

Here's the deal - babies are for life. A few months not shooting is just a few months. Is the risk worth it? Even if a small percentage of fetuses are affected, do you take that risk?

Also, asking your DOCTOR does not mean that he or she is expert on that particular subject. Has the doctor reviewed the literature?
 
That's a wonderful read. Well worth the few minutes it takes!

Pregnancy only lasts 9 months, and she's already five months along now. That means that if she puts this off for just another 4 months, the baby's out of danger (so long as she's still VERY careful with lead hygiene).

Why would ANYONE take such a senseless risk with their baby? Someday, if any of a million things doesn't go wrong along the way, you'll look that little person in the eyes and say, "I've done the very best I can to protect you."

Right?
 
Well said Sam. My wife is pushing 6mos pregnant, and though she misses it, she wont be shooting until after the baby is born. Our biggest concern is hurting the babies ears (I read somewhere they develop around 16 weeks). Lead is a smaller concern, given that we shoot at an outdoor range, but a small concern nonetheless. I could see the recoil on larger guns being a potential problem as well, even ignoring the previous 2 reasons not to shoot while carrying a little being.
 
My wife hasn't touched a gun since getting pregnant. I haven't been to the range in months, since before the children were born - triplets are very time-consuming! The lead exposure is the biggest concern for me, all the more so because our babies were born quite premature. I could find the time (we each get a little "me time" each week where one of us goes out and does stuff we want to and the other takes care of the babies) but I usually shoot on an indoor range and I don't want to bring all that lead into the house right now.

Some day it will be safe for them to have me shooting again. In the meantime, well, I did take one of my little girls to the gun store with me the other day!
 
My wife went to the range once while she was pregnant with our son. Granted she wasn't far along, about 2 months or so. I was going away for a long trip and wanted to make sure she could use my 12ga. Have her wait until after to get her range time in, she is almost there.
 
I can only add that, during her two pregnancies, one of the things I was absolutely, positively NOT going to do was hand my wife a firearm.

Or a knife.

Or a loaf of bread with a stiff crust...:)

Larry
 
ford8nr said:
I'd have her ask her doctor NOT forum 'experts'.
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But the problem with asking her doctor is that most doctors don't know anything about guns. Just like most of the rest of the general public, most doctors aren't "gun people" and they probably don't realize how loud guns are and they probably aren't aware of how much lead exposure there is when shooting.

I'd bet if her doctor warned her not to go shooting it would simply be out of concern that she'd experience a range accident.
 
BSA1 said:
I'm sure rapists, robbers and other violent criminals will wait until the baby is born before they attack a pregnant woman.

Does the course allow for use of 22 rimfire and how many rounds are actually shot?
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Rimfire might be worse for lead exposure. If you live in a state that recognizes out of state permits have her get one of those which you can do online.

Get her a laser trainer or snap caps to train with.
 
My wife is a medical doctor (surgery). She knows almost nothing about guns other than what I've managed to teach her. So she made sure to stay away from any shooting while she was pregnant. I didn't even clean my guns in the house for 9 months.
 
Ears begin to develop around 4 months of pregnancy. They are obviously very sensitive for a long time (even well past birth) in utero. So, it's not as if shooting WILL cause significant damage; but there is certainly a lot of risk. I shot without hearing protection (including a Mosin) for years. I do think I am experiencing some hearing issues because of it; though, I'm certainly nowhere close to hearing impaired. I'm also a grown man, though.

After 4 months, I would not go shooting. My wife continued to shoot until about 4 months, and took a break. The Mom's body may provide plenty of protection, but it's a risk that's not really worth taking. As such, I'm sure the NRA's policy is liability-related. They probably don't want to be sued by a Mom who has a hearing-impaired child.
 
BSA1 said:
I'm sure rapists, robbers and other violent criminals will wait until the baby is born before they attack a pregnant woman.
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The chance of her being attacked in the next four months is extremely low. However, the chance of the baby being harmed by the sound of gunfire and the airborne lead is probably much higher, especially if the shooting is at an indoor range; indoor ranges are notorious for airborne lead exposure and gunfire sounds a lot louder indoors. It doesn't make any logical sense to potentially harm the baby in order to prepare for an event that's extremely unlikely to occur.

EDIT: My comments above were assuming the range time was for a CCW permit; I figured she wanted to carry a handgun. But I re-read the OP and I realized it was just for a basic pistol course, not a carry permit. So either way she's not going to be carrying the gun (at least not right away), so it makes even LESS sense to go shooting while pregnant.

BSA1 said:
Does the course allow for use of 22 rimfire and how many rounds are actually shot?
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I agree with breakingcontact: Rimfire might be quieter, but it has a lot higher risk of lead exposure. More importantly, unless everyone else at the range is also using .22s, it's not going to make a lot of difference in the baby's noise exposure.
 
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Its just 9 months. Why do some people act like if you don't shoot all the time you will somehow lose your ability to hit a target? For self defense you are talking about 10 yards or less, if you cant hit a target at 10 or less yards because you didn't practice for a few months I don't know what to tell you. She can still carry a gun for self defense. she can still practice with snap caps and air soft guns if she absolutely feels the need to.

I usually don't shoot all winter and when I start shooting again in the spring after several months of not shooting I still somehow can hit my targets... amazing huh? Somehow I don't completely forget how to shoot a gun.
 
The chemical concerns about occassional shooting are probably a bit overblown as long as shooting happens outdoors or a well ventilated indoor range. Probably should stay away from busy ranges or ones where black powder is being shot, and let someone else do the gun cleaning. If she is relatively new to shooting and gets stressed around weapons its probably a good idea to go on hiatus. As far as the question about hearing I am a bit clueless, google search turns out mixed results. Some say occassional outdoor is fine (especially if you limit it to quieter calibers) others say nothing after about 20wks.
 
I'm sure rapists, robbers and other violent criminals will wait until the baby is born before they attack a pregnant woman.
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You have got to be kidding. Are you actually advocating risking permanent damage to the child on the off-chance that she might be raped because she didn't take the NRA safety course?

I can only assume this is an April Fool's Day post gone awry.
 
My wife shot in competition the week before our daughter was born and the
week after. Daughter is 16 now. No ill effects.
 
No ill effects.
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Thank heaven for that! Amazing the stuff a lot of us got subjected to as kids, or put our kids through because we (or our parents) were too ignorant to know any better, right?

Remember riding in pickup truck beds? Or using a phone book instead of a child safety seat? What were we THINKING?

Ahhh, well, we survived! Those of us that survived, I mean.
 
very valid reasons for not shooting,lead issues.if you guys read up on a dr carl pfeiffer(deceased), of the pfeiffer clinic.he was a pharmocologist dealing with chemical imbalances of the brain from princeton university.chemical imbalances can be caused naturally as well as infused by outside sources,and enviromental issues.
carl pfeiffer clinic
mensah medical clinic
amen clinic
 
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