How To Avoid Infections While You Are Pregnant - Through Safe Eating and Safe Contact With Animals

Listeriosis

In its mild from, this illness resembles influenza (flu). It is important to take special precautions to avoid listeriosis while you are pregnant because even the mild form of the illness in the mother can result in miscarriage, still birth, or severe illness in the newborn baby.

Listeriosos is caused by bacteria (germs or bugs) called Listeris monocytogenes (listeria). High levels of these bacteria have been found in some foods and it therefore makes sense to avoid them when you know you are pregnant. There is no need to avoid these foods before you know you are pregnant or after the baby is born, including when you are breastfeeding.

However, it is a very rare disease. The reported incidence in 1990 was approximately 1 in 30,00 total births.

AVOIDING LISTERIOSIS -

Cheese:
Certain ripened soft cheeses such as the Camembert, Brie, and the blue-veined varieties may contain high levels if listeria. Do not eat these sorts of cheese if you are pregnant.

However, you can still enjoy hard cheeses, as well as cottage cheese, processed cheese and cheese spreads. There is no need for you to avoid these types of cheese.

Pate:
There may be high levels of listeria in some types of pate. To be on the safe side, do not eat any type of pate while you are pregnant.

Cook-chill meals and Ready to Eat Poultry:
Cook-chill foods are ready cooked meals kept cold (not frozen) for the customer either to eat cold or reheat at home. Listeria has been found in very small amounts in cook-chill meals and ready to eat poultry. To be on the safe side, while you are pregnant, you are advised to reheat these types of food thoroughly until they are piping hot rather than eat them cold.

Sheep:
Sheep may miscarry or give birth to sick lambs following infection with listeria. Pregnant women should not help with lambing, or milk ewes that have recently given birth, or touch the afterbirth, or come into contact with newborn lambs.

Salmonellosis
Samonellosis is caused by bacteria called Salmonella and is one of the commonest causes of food poisoning, giving rise to sickness and diarrhoea. Although it may not have any direct effect on your unborn child, it is sensible to do your best to avoid this distressing illness while you are pregnant.

Eggs:
Everyone is advised not to eat raw eggs or foods with uncooked egg in them. however, if you are pregnant you are also advised to eat only eggs which are cooked until both the white and the yolk are solid. Young children should not eat partially cooked eggs either.

If you intend to follow a recipe which requires eggs to be only partially cooked or not cooked at all, then use pasteurised egg products - either in liquid or dry form - which can be bought in many food shops.
Poultry and Raw Meat:
Poultry and raw meat can be contaminated with bacteria which can cause food poisoning. Such bacteria are destroyed when you cook food at high temperatures, because heat kills bacteria.
However, the raw food can contaminate other cooked foods in the kitchen during preparation of a meal if you are not careful. Therefore take special care when handling meat and poultry that have not yet been cooked.
Always wash your hands before preparing any food and afterwards.

Toxoplasmosis
Toxoplasmosis is an illness, which can affect a pregnant woman and in rare instances her unborn child. The reported incidence of affected babies in 1989 - 1990 was 1 in 50,000 total births. It is usually unnoticed in the mother, but it can sometimes cause a mild flu-like illness.
Where the infection is passed to the unborn baby it may cause a range of problems, some of them serious. The illness caused by infection with an organism called Toxoplasma gondii. This has been found in raw meat and cat faeces.

AVOIDING TOXOPLASMOSIS -

Meat:
Do not eat any raw or undercooked meat - and don't forget to wash your hands thoroughly after handling raw meat.
Vegetables and Salad:
Always wash these carefully to remove any soil and dirt which can carry the infection if it has been fouled by cats.
Goat's Milk:
Goat's milk may occasionally carry toxoplasma, so if you drink goat's milk while you are pregnant, it should be pasteurised, sterilised or UHT (ultra-heat-treated).
Contact with Cats and Kittens:
While you are pregnant, wash your hands after handling cats or kittens, no matter how clean they may seem.
Cat litter trays need to be kept clean. Where possible get someone else to change the soiled litter and clean out the tray. If this isn't possible and you have to change it yourself, always wear rubber gloves when doing so. Only the soiled part of the litter needs to be removed, which must be done within 24 hours of soiling. Wash the gloves afterwards and then wash your hands thoroughly as well.
Avoid contact with stray cats and kittens.
In the Garden:
Always wear gloves when gardening. This is to protect your hands from contamination, which may be present in garden soil if, it has been fouled by cats.
Wash your hands after gardening even if you have worn gloves.
Sheep:
Sheep may miscarry or give birth to sick lambs following infection with toxoplasma. Pregnant women should not help with lambing, or milk ewes that have recently given birth, or touch the afterbirth, or come into contact with newborn lambs.

Chlamydiosis
Only pregnant women who come into close contact with sheep and newborn lambs at lambing time are at risk from this infection. This is a very rare disease, and is caused by bacteria called Clamydia psittaci and can cause a pregnant woman to have a miscarriage.

AVOIDING CHLAMYDIOSIS -

Sheep:
While you are pregnant, don't help with lambing or milk ewes that have recently given birth, and avoid contact with aborted or newborn lambs, or with the afterbirth.

Avoiding milk-borne infections

Besides the infections already mentioned, milk that has not been heat-treated, i.e. not pasteurised, not sterilised, or not UHT, may carry other harmful germs.

Milk:
Unpasteurised cow's milk is sold in bottles with a green top, or in packets marked "UNPASTEURISED", and carries the following warning: "This milk has not been heat-treated and may therefore contain organisms harmful to health." You should avoid these risks by drinking only heat-treated milk, I.E. pasteurised, sterilised or UHT milk. Treated milk still has good nutritional value.

Checklist

• Keep work surfaces in the kitchen clean - try to keep pets away from these.

• Wash your hands after handling pets.

• Always wash your hands before and after preparing food, especially after touching raw meat and poultry.

• Use one board for preparing raw meat and poultry, and a separate one for other foods. Wash boards, knives, and your hands carefully between preparation stages.

• Make sure you cook meat and poultry until they are well done all the way through.

• Don't eat raw or lightly cooked eggs, and don't use them in recipes where no cooking is involved - use pasteurised or dried eggs instead.

• When cooking or reheating food, make sure you heat it until it is piping hot all the way through.

• Store raw and cooked foods well away from each other - keep any raw meat and poultry on the bottom shelf of your fridge, to prevent their juices from dripping onto cooked foods.

• No matter how clean and healthy your pet is - wash your hands after handling it.

• Try to keep your pets out of the kitchen, however well behaved they may be. They may inadvertently spread infection. In particular, keep pets well away from surfaces on which you prepare food.

• Prepare all pet food separately from other food. Always use separate utensils and dishes from those used by the rest of the household.