Ate raw fish last night without thinking, when there's a chance I'm pg... help!

[emeraldgirl1]

There's a chance I'm pg (admittedly a small one, but we did do The Deed earlier in the week when I was definitely ovulating) and I went out last night with friends and unthinkingly ate sushi (also had a couple of glasses of wine - my head was really not in the zone) :(

Am I being crazy to be worrying about this? Not much I can do about it now obviously. But any reassurance would be so hugely appreciated.

I daren't even go on Google and look up what the dangers of raw fish in early pregnancy are, I'm too scared... :(

Risks are minimal. You will be fine. The baby is fairly self suffficient until about 7 weeks when the placenta starts functioning. This is how the babies of mothers who have heavily drunk alcohol before their bfp end up being just fine.

When TTC I carried on as normal eating and drinking as I knew the by the time I found out obsessively symptom spotted I was pregnant it would have done no harm what so ever.

Good luck.

Isn't it just to do with food poisoning being worse during pregnancy? I would have thought any food poisoning would have kicked in by now so you should be ok.

don't worry -- millions of people get drunk before they know they're pg or eat swordfish/ illegal cheese / sushi etc

you can't put your entire life on hold as conceiving can take many months

Thank you so much everyone - instantly I feel better and not like a bad mother before I've even started... I agree PsychicSatsuma that you can't put your whole life on hold. I always vowed I wouldn't turn into one of those people who can think of nothing but conceiving and here I am, barely a month in, and already I'm turning into one of those people... it's hard not to, isn't it? I need to fight the temptation anew!

I think I read that the sushi thing is to do with parasites that live in the fish, BUT they're killed by the fish being frozen and re-thawed prior to eating, and (apparently) most sushi restaurants do this as standard. You'll be fine :)

Even if you are pregnant sushi is fine. It's on the NHS pregnancy website. There are very few foods that pregnant women need to avoid. And until you are actually pregnant, eating them won't do any harm at all! Until the egg is implanted enough to give you a positive pregnancy test, it won't be harmed by alcohol/camembert/raw eggs or whatever while it is floating along your fallopian tubes and not yet connected to your blood supply.

don't go googling it. If you googled "can I drink tap water during pregnancy" then Google would probably find some wacko site that convinces you it is dangerous.

From the NHS website:

It's fine to eat sushi and other dishes made with raw fish when you're pregnant as long as the fish used to make it has been frozen first. This is because occasionally fish contains small parasitic worms that could make you ill. Freezing kills the worms and makes raw fish safe to eat.
Sushi sold in shops or restaurants, whether it's ready-made or made in the shop, should be fine to eat. This is because the raw fish the shop uses to make sushi must have been frozen at minus 20C for at least 24 hours.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/foods-to-avoid-pregnant.aspx#sushi

Google is Evil. I have found this out many times while self-diagnosing for headaches (brain tumour), constipation (bowel cancer) etc...

Thanks McPopcorn!!

All tuna is frozen first before making into sushi. This kills the parasites. Some salmon isn't frozen. However, it is generally always farmed salmon and sourced from farms that provide certificates to prove their salmon is parasite free.

If I could change one thing in the world, it would be the paranoia that our society has inflicted on all ttc or pregnant women.

As many posters have pointed out, eating raw fish is fine. There is a slightly higher chance of getting something that could make you/baby sick, but honestly, in this country where food hygeine rules are strict, it's frankly unlikely. And... as you have not got sick yet, I think you can rest assured there was nothing wrong with the sushi you were eating.

My doctors all told me that eating sushi while pregnant was just fine, but that I should be vigilant about where and when I bought it - ie not the last box from the chiller at the petrol station cafe on the M5!

Ahead of you being pregnant, let me also assure you that pasterized and non mouldy cheese is absolutely fine to eat. All cooked cheese is fine to eat. Foods high in vitamin A should be limited, but do not have to be avoided like the plague. Ditto foods with a high mercury content. Tinned tuna does not have a high mercury content so can be eaten as normal. [And I always ask myself, who eats fresh tuna and/or swordfish more than once or at most twice a week anyway? Similarly, who eats liver more than now and again!?]

On alcohol, excessive alcohol is known to be bad. Very limited alcohol (ie 1 - 2 units a week) is known to be fine. It's unclear where the line is between the two so, to be safe, stick to 1 - 2 units once a week or so.

Also, this is a great book that not only says what you can and can't do, but tells you why rather than giving you ridiculous rules with no guidance!

Hope you are pregnant soon!

Seconded, Bling

emerald, you are not pregnant yet as far as you know. Even if you were, the embryo would not be sharing your blood supply until later in the pregnancy. Even if it were later in the pregnancy, sushi and a moderate amount of alcohol is not harmful.

Please try to relax. This ttc lark is hard enough without making yourself feel guilty over this kind of stuff.

Wow - thank you so much Bling and eurochick - I am learning v fast, this is such a minefield if you let it get on top of you and you are right, the ttc thing is stressful (however hard I try to follow my own advice and CALM THE F DOWN) so what is the point of adding more stress?! I have been taking folic acid and generally trying to be healthy so I agree there is no point getting obsessive. I also had no idea about the embryo's blood supply not sharing yours until later on... like I say, it's a steep learning curve.

Now if I can just stop DH from thinking he's definitely impregnated me every single time he shoves his willy in my direction, we might stand a chance of getting through this without making each other crazy...