To be really worried about breaking pregnancy food rules.

[honeytea]

I'm 24 weeks pregnant and live in Sweden (I am British but live here) the rules for pregnant women here are very simple, no blue cheese, no Baltic sea fish (too much mercury) and no alcohol. I have been going by these rules.

I read a thread about toxoplasmosis on the pregnancy bord yesterday and I was horrified I had no idea about it :( in the 1st tri I ate loads and loads of strawberries, often bought from fruit stands in the city and eaten right away as a snack (they were one of the only things that stopes me throwing up on the train home) I also went to 2 weddings this summer and at both the meal was slightly rare lamb.

I'm not sure what to do, I feel like I have been so stupid, the attitude here is very relaxed about pregnancy and I have trusted my midwife but now I am convinced I have harmed my DS. I was panicking and up all night.

I have looked into it and I really hope I am immune to it, my mother fed me unpasturised goat milk every day as a baby and we have allways had cats.

Did everyone stick to the pregnancy rules completely?

Go by the rules in Sweeden, they sound much more sensible. I had no idea thats strawberries weren't allowed - I ate tons when I was pregnant with ds 11 years ago, it must be a newish thing.

You'll drive yourself mad if you think about it too much - try and relax.

They bring up something new every year.

Relax and go by the rules you have been given. :)

I am worried because I didn't was them, I also ate unwashed nectarines but they don't grow on the ground so less risk I think.

I bet you are already immune, before you conceived.

valium it's not a strawberry ban, it's an unwashed fruit and veg ban, in case there were toxoplasmosis bacteria in the soil.

I never remember to wash fruit and certainly didn't when I was pregnant.

Oh right, that makes more sense jessie

I'm so pleased I was pregnant 22 years ago, things seem to have reached a level of hysteria now that I would have thought science fiction back in 1990.
I don't know how well I'd have coped with the level of stress that so many pregnant women seem to have thrust upon them.

My dd is 9 months old and I live in UK and never heard of not eating strawberries, and I followed the banned food etc guidelines very strictly.

I never washed friuit and veg either so i guess that's good as I'm likely to have cought it allready, I really hope so!

Should have just bought chrisps as a snack!

Someone whipped some prawns away from me at a party once and was horrified that I was going to eat them as I was pregnant - I whipped them back again pretty quick

'You must only eat organic strawberries when the moon is waxing gibbous and the wind is nor'nor'west. And never more than 9 at a time'
Some of the advice sounds similar to a Discworld almanac, people follow it and most have no idea why.

Don't worry! You haven't harmed your baby - toxoplasmosis as far as I remember makes you ill, so you'd know if you'd had it?

The pregnancy rules aren't rules, they are guidelines, and they change all the time. Swedish ones sound more sensible than UK at least. Relax and enjoy the strawberries!

You drank unpasteurised milk, you've eaten unwashed veg all your life, and you grew up with cats.

What are the chances that you never ever encountered the bacterial bastard before, and yet it was suddenly on one of the strawberries after you got pregnant?

I make sure my food is cooked properly to the same standards as before my pregnancy, don't drink too much, have limited caffeine and generally put things to the back of my mind or act sensibly. The guidelines seem to change daily and we're treated like children who can't make our own decisions. Carry on as you are, your baby will be fine, and when it comes to your next baby the NHS rules here will be totally different, whereas Swedish rules will probably be the same.

Completely agree Fallen, it's quite ridiculous. Tiny risks involved usually, if any at all.

My community MW told me that most of the advice should be treated as guidance rather than rules. The only foodstuff he said was a high risk is packaged salad - apparently they are rife with listeria.

There are no 'rules' to be broken, and no 'banned' foods, there is only advice based on the current evidence and understanding of risk.

It is very unlikely that the strawberries would have caused you/baby any harm, do not panic. Are you worried you caught toxoplasmosis in the first trimester and didn't have symptoms? I think you can get tested for toxo, not that I think you need to, but if it's really causing you a lot of anxiety maybe ask your midwife?

If these have been your eating habits your whole life, chances of you not having been exposed previously are very low. A MNer posted once about a very sniffy French doctor who told her it was only British patients who ever hadn't been exposed because they didn't eat right!

The chances of toxoplasmosis infection being passed to the baby in early pregnancy are pretty low too - and when it happens it most often causes catastrophic problems like miscarriage. What I am trying to say is, if there had been a problem you would probably have known by now anyway.

I don't mind the nonsense, any more than I mind people dangling crystals, wittering on about aligning chakras and guardian spirits.
It is the complexity, lack of clarity and the fear and guilt that all this malarky about pregnancy generates that infuriates me.

'but now I am convinced I have harmed my DS. I was panicking and up all night.'

This. Poor OP, you should be delighted and only awake at night because the baby is cartwheeling, not imagining terrors because one country's practice is different to another's. Time to be happy.

Hej honey.
I had my DDs in Belgium where they test for toxo immunity (thankfully I was immune). Can you ask your midwife to test you?

There you go:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11561964

The risk is tiny.

YoullLaughAboutItOneDay: A MNer posted once about a very sniffy French doctor who told her it was only British patients who ever hadn't been exposed because they didn't eat right!

Makes sense! I wonder if I'm immune. I didn't worry about it when I was pregnant, although I often forget to wash vegetablesbecause we don't have a cat.

I thought the guidance for meat had been changed again recently? I didn't eat steak the whole time I was pregnant with DD2 because I eat it raw rare and I'm sure not long after she was born I was told that it was OK as long as the outside was seared. I should have ignored it like I did with the advice about avoiding peanuts the first time around.

Thanks so much for all the advice and hand holding! It really is scary the stuff you are supposed to do snd not do, I have read the guidelines now and it seems it's not safe to even lie in bed unless you lie on your left side.

Honeytea, I am pregnant with my second and live in NL. No midwife has ever said anything to me about which side I should lie on or anything like that.

It's the Americans I feel sorry for, they seem to get glared at for even thinking about having a coffee. When I go the midwife here I am often offered a cup!