Effects on a pregnant woman

[tboesche]

Hey, I see no possible hazard from shooting non-firearm guns, BB guns, CO2, AirSoft, etc. Your daughter can develop safe handling, stance, grip, trigger control, and aim. Those skills will carry over to firearms. In many cases you can do it in your back yard without an expensive trip to the range.

- Jim

Jim,
I was actually thinking about this. My back yard is pretty large. I could get an irsoft Pistol and an M-4 and teach her in the back yard, and when I am not working with her, I could wax the neighbor kid in the woods behind our house

[gregthehand]

My father is an OBGYN and a VERY good one at that. I will ask him about it tonight.

[Tactical_Texan_CHL]

I'm not a scuba diver, OB nurse, OB/GYN, OR a woman. I should have put that as a disclaimer in my first post! My wife doesn't shoot anyway, so we didn't have to ask her OB/GYN. I'm sure the old OB nurse who told me that thought she was right. I'm interested to hear what your OB/GYN dad says.

[tboesche]

Greg,
Thanks. I look forward to hearing what your Dad says.

[texasag93]

Sound travels faster and with different intensity in fluids as opposed to air, but there is no amplification.

I would expect the effect to be comparable to putting your head underwater in a bathtub or pool and trying to hear what's going on obove the surface. The sound that penetrates the air interface will be heavily attenuated, and then have to pass through integument, fatty tissue, and muscle before reaching the amniotic sac.

The sound of something tapping on a tank is happening right in the medium that the ears are in lending to an appearance of greater volume, and then there is the illusion created by the fact that our eyes see that the noisemaker is this far away, and our air trained ears expect this level of volume.

I would expect it to be safe for your daughter to shoot as long as she avoids exposure to lead and mercury fumes.

My daughter shot on our indoor rifle league until she was too large to get into a prone position and my grandson has never shown much in the way of ill effects, although . . .

The effects on hearing by mothers shooting takes different amounts of time to occure. For girls, the delay is about 12 to 14 years, while with boys it is 13 to 15 years.......often it is triggered by puberty...........

texasag

[gregthehand]

Ok I talked to him this morning.

He said medically there is no good evidence that loud noises hurt a fetus. Now he did say the baby can indeed hear and that during periods of loud noises an increase of activity is noticed.

Above all he said that if the mother feels uncomfortable doing the activity then she needs to not do it if at all possible. The increase in stress and worry will do more harm than good. He did advise possibly wearing a thick coat during shooting or a vest. This of course is not a medical fix but just something our poor country minds could think of. He also said recoil is not to great of a concern but just don't go shooting any large caliber firearms. Once again it's not something that's been proven by any medical journal but then again it's better to err on the side of caution here.

That's really all he could suggest this morning on his way to the office. He said he will do a quick search to see if he can find anything out but that he probably wouldn't turn anything up.

Bottom line if she does not feel comfortable doing it don't try and talk her into it just take a guys day out.

[Keith B]

.... Now he did say the baby can indeed hear and that during periods of loud noises an increase of activity is noticed.

I remember when my wife was expecting our daughter, if country music came on the radio, she would start bouncing around in the womb. She never has been a country music fan since, so not sure it she was dancing or staging a protest!

IANAD, I would think if you take it in small stages and the baby doesn't seem to be disturbed by the shooting, as the noise increases, then you should be good to go!

EDITED TO ADD: I would only do it outside though. That way the ventilation will be much better for fumes and exposure to powder/lead.

[jbirds1210]

You should have seen the look on the face of our OB when Kimberly asked her that question. She actually said, "now this is a first".

But I'll bet the look on the OB's face was even better when Jason asked 'How soon after the baby is born can they learn the proper grip on a Glock?'

I have documented proof that our Daughter planned to shoot a Glock.....even before she was born.

She used sign language that was only visible to us during the ultrasound. Some of the still shots are very convincing.

Jason

[Keith B]

You should have seen the look on the face of our OB when Kimberly asked her that question. She actually said, "now this is a first".

But I'll bet the look on the OB's face was even better when Jason asked 'How soon after the baby is born can they learn the proper grip on a Glock?'

I have documented proof that our Daughter planned to shoot a Glock.....even before she was born.

She used sign language that was only visible to us during the ultrasound. Some of the still shots are very convincing.

Jason

There ya go. Shooting is in her DNA!!! She will be a natural born marksman...er.. person. And those little pink muffs look great on her!!

[lawrnk]

I agree with most of the posters here. Exposure to lead, fumes, and possible metal dusts, gun noises...its not worth the risk.
I'm generally not a worrier, but when it comes to pregnancies or infants...I avoid even miniscule risks. How far along is she? Maybe you could wait a couple months?

[dukalmighty]

Lead fumes would be biggest risk as lead affects infants more than adults,i like the idea of the bb gun or airsoft weapons until JR. makes his entrance

[CompVest]

bump

[ClarkLZeuss]

One or two indoor ranges I've been to explicitly say "No pregnant women." Just my 2 cents.

[TexasComputerDude]

I have had a burst eardrum from excessive sound energy level. When your submarine wanders into a live sink exercise by the Italian navy and you are sitting on the passive sonar when the torpedo detonates it will do some damage to your ears. The lat/lon coordinates we received on the intel were off by a few hundred miles. The four words you do not want to say on a submarine are "Torpedo in the water!"

They don't have a volume limiter? I would think anything that could be damaging to human ears would be reduced.