What To Look For in a Pregnancy-Safe Bug Spray, According to Doctors
When you’re pregnant, it’s important to do what you can to ensure a healthy pregnancy. This will involve thinking twice about what you put on your skin and opting to use pregnancy-safe skin-care products—bug spray included.
Certain ingredients found in bug spray—such as DEET—can be absorbed into the skin, and if these ingredients aren’t deemed safe for use when pregnant, it can be potentially harmful to a pregnant person’s developing baby, especially if used in high concentrations. “As a product is absorbed into the skin, it will usually end up in our bloodstream and then get shared with a growing baby via the placenta and/or umbilical cord,” says Sarah Connors, ND, a naturopathic doctor and doula based in Ontario, Canada. “Keeping in mind that any products we use end up getting shared with our unborn children makes it that much more important to be aware of the ingredients in that product.”
Continue reading to learn more, written by Jenn Sinrich, Kayla Hui, and Danielle Calma.
February 25, 2025
Jenn Sinrich, Kayla Hui, Danielle Calma
Jenn Sinrich is an experienced journalist and content strategist based in Boston. She’s written for several publications including SELF, Women’s Health, Reader’s Digest, and many more. When she’s not busy writing, editing or reading, she’s traveling, running and enjoying the simple things in life with her husband Dan and two beautiful children.
Kayla Hui, MPH, is a commerce writer at Well+Good, where she ideates and reports on the best wellness products in fitness, beauty, home, health, and lifestyle. Her commerce and editorial work appears in Pulitzer Center, Verywell Health, SHAPE, Health, PEOPLE, InStyle, Travel+Leisure, and more. Kayla graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2018 with a degree in gender and women’s studies and global health and received her master’s degree in public health from the Boston University School of Public Health in 2020, specializing in health communications and maternal and child health. She has experience developing testing methodologies, running product tests, and has tested dozens of beauty, health, wellness, and lifestyle products in a lab and real world setting. She currently lives in Austin, Texas.
Danielle Calma is an SEO writer at Well+Good, where she researches and writes stories on topics related to wellness and lifestyle. Before joining Well+Good, she served as a commerce writer across Bustle Digital Group’s brands, including Bustle, Elite Daily, Mic, and Inverse. Previously, she was a senior content writer at Philippines-based beauty and wellness e-commerce site BeautyMNL. She currently lives in New York.
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Medya Mansyone
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Medya Mansyone
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Medya Mansyone
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