FWIW, I was listening to something on the radio while pregnant with one of the other two, and it was talking about how smoking (I think) when pregnant could affect the child of the foetus.... ie the pregnant woman's grandchild. Of course I'm not saying smoking is advisable, all I'm saying is: sometimes more knowledge is not helpful - even if you do all the 'right' things (and remember, that changes all the time!!), it might be something your mother did which will affect your baby, nothing you can do about that! AARGH! Best not to reproduce at all, I think, and shut yourself in a cupboard.

As others have pointed out, there are so many variables, and you just don't know what is going to happen once your baby is on the outside. We all worry about our children having a life-threatening allergy or illness, but as others have pointed out, even within the same family where there are histories of allergies, some have them and some don't. My cousin's wife is allergic to nuts but her son is fine - and obviously she didn't have any during her pregnancy. It's all a bit of a lottery...