BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! We're allowed runny eggs!

[justonesherryformedicinalpurpo]

I saw my my midwife yesterday who informed me as long as eggs have the red lion stamped onto the shell then it is safe to have runny!

Thought I'd share for those desperate for a runny egg!

I've not researched this though, I only know this based on what mw said.

[wantingno2]

That sounds really nice lastnight I prefer white pudding but I do like black pudding it was actually my consultant that said about the rare steak but she just said it because of how low my iron is I can't eat steak at the moment anyway as the cut of meat just makes me feel sick but I do like my burgers a little pink on the inside x

[RNBrie]

I think it just takes the NHS years to catch up with the right science. The NHS definitely said no runny eggs when I was pregnant with Dc1 (who is 4) but the lion quality mark was introduced in 1998 so it would have been safe to eat runny lion stamped eggs since then (admittedly not many of them were lion stamped when it was launched but it caught on really quickly).

[lastnightiwenttomanderley]

Read 'Expecting Better'

Great book for outlining the facts and stats behind the guidance so you can make your own decisions. I ate fish sushi throughout pregnancy as I checked it's origins and processes. Ditto for runny eggs.

wanting Are you a fan of black pudding? Warm black pudding and spinach salad with crisp bacon and a poached egg will do wonders for your iron levels. Best friend is an obstetrician and wishes she could prescribe it!

[hereagainalways]

Whoops I thought car's post said fish!!!

[hereagainalways]

You can't catch toxo from fish. Undercooked or raw fish can carry other parasites such as listeria but not toxoplasmosis. Toxo only comes from undercooked or uncooked beef, lamb, pork, cat faeces, soil or unwashed fruit and veg.

[CarShare]

Also baffled by toxo advice given by midwife. I inadvertently ate rare-ish meat in second trimester and midwife did a toxo screen to be on the safe side. Thankfully negative. There's less risk of very serious effects of toxo after first trimester but a greater chance an infection could cross placenta and still have life long implications for the baby. The chances of being infected with toxo in pregnancy are very small however.

[whatsoever]

I've eaten runny eggs in all my pregnancies as long as they've been lion marked. When I questioned a MW last time why I was being told even lion marked weren't supposed to be ok, she had no answer. NHS advice is quite odd at times.

Had a medium rare burger today as well. Felt both rebellious and the need to explain my reasoning, which is insane I know!

[wantingno2]

She just said because baby is formed at 12 weeks that it can't cause any abnormalities that's all she said really and because I'm anaemic I will get more iron from it the rarer it is. How true it is I don't no but I only have it a little pink anyway.

[Runningupthathill82]

Wanting - that sounds to me like really dodgy science from your midwife there, though I could be mistaken.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not judging (i have happily eaten medium- rare steak in pregnancy as I feel the toxoplasmosis risk from steak is minute) but the difference between eating it before 12 weeks and after 12 weeks makes little sense, from what I've read.

Was your midwife arguing that after 12 weeks you're less likely to contract toxo even if the meat is infected, because your immune system is stronger?

Or was she arguing that, after 12 weeks, if the meat was infected it would cause less damage to the baby?

Because from my reading on toxoplasmosis (again, something you're much more likely to get from your garden than from steak!), it is more likely, not less, that an infected pregnant woman will pass the infection to her baby in later pregnancy, compared to the first trimester.

The difference is that, in the first trimester, the infection would be more likely to cause miscarriage whereas later on it would be more likely cause birth defects, rather than ending the pregnancy.

Would be really interested to hear if your midwife has new/updated information.

[wantingno2]

My midwife told me I can eat rare steak now I'm past 12 weeks witch was news to me I'm glad throw as I like it a little pink apparently the rarer it is the more iron you get from it x

[Morgan6653]

I didn't know and that has made my day! Missed runny eggs so much

[timelytess]

Wow timelytess not sure what to make of that.. was it out of choice!?
Sisterhood stuff. Women did it, said it kept your strength up, have it at two thirty in the afternoon and you won't be too tired to make milk in the evening.
Its actually delicious. The amount of brewers yeast (12 tablets?) was off putting but it all disappeared into the lovely, frothy milkshake.

[Wombat87]

Thank you you beautiful woman you!!!! Thank you!!!!

[MetalMidget]

I didn't know, all the stuff I'd read said no runny eggs at all! \o/

[PamBagnallsGotACollage]

Justonesherry, one of the things I can't stand on here is, 'urgh, there's been a thread about this!' Has there? Well, why did you open this one?

Enjoy your runny eggs. I didn't have them with my first 4 years ago and then discovered this year, with my second, that I could. I was as excited as you.

[CityMole]

One of my big cravings has been for eggs florentine, and I love having the yolk a bit runny, so that it can run into the spinach, mmmm.

The 'safe in lion stamped eggs' view has been around for quite a while, but it's not officially publicised still by certain channels. Proof if ever it was needed that a significant chunk of the advice pregnant women receive is based on very little science and on risks that are hugely and inversely disproportionate to the nature of advice given.

There also seems to have been a shift in the decade or so towards

1. people seeking to tell pregnant women what they should or should not be doing with their body (often based on rather strange 'evidence', or based on advice that has its genesis in the States, where the highly litigious environment means that doctors HAVE to say 'avoid pretty much everything that might ever have caused a baby to even hiccup' or else their insurers will not cover them; and
2. a kind of self imposed, almost gleeful, martyrdom amongst certain pregnant women about the sheer lengths they are having to go to, in order to keep their fetus 'safe'. When frankly, for certain personality types, enjoying a little bit of what you fancy once a fortnight (or whatever your own personal barometer is set at) is probably going to deliver you a much more chilled baby at term.

This article is old, but science has not made any remarkable breakthroughs since it was published, so the debate remains relevant. www.theguardian.com/society/2007/may/29/health.medicineandhealth

[justonesherryformedicinalpurpo]

Ha pambag tell me about it! Love your comment, it is hilarious!

I have them the same way as you mslg but was told the whole egg had to be cooked through with previous pg!

[PamBagnallsGotACollage]

Some people already knew this OP. Why didn't you?! How dare you be excited about something that is news to you but not to others. And how dare you repeat something that has been written in other threads even if you have clearly never read them.

Sort yourself out love.

[Mslg]

Runny as in a barely boiled egg (runny egg white as well as the yolk)? I always have them with the white cooked through and the yellow slightly runny. I presumed that was alright!

[LibrariesGaveUsP0wer]

NHS pregnancy food advice gives me the . The official advice is still no runny eggs because of the salmonella risk. Yet vaccinating hens started about 1998 I think. Now, I am sure it took a while for the effects to be measured, and efficacy established. But that's 18 years ago. That's a whole person-who-can-vote ago

Enjoy your eggs OP (Just remember, no runny eggs from domestic chickens. Most people who just keep half a dozen in the back garden don't vaccinate).

[justonesherryformedicinalpurpo]

Wow I can't believe how widely known it is! My last pregnancy, not even a year ago, I was told no runny egss by mw and all friends and family and the same mw now tells me I can have them... yet others have been having them runny for years! Bizarre!

Glad for those who also didn't realise and thank you raxa and libraries

Wow timelytess not sure what to make of that.. was it out of choice!?

[timelytess]

I used to have raw eggs in a milkshake when I was pregnant and breastfeeding. With honey and brewers yeast. Those were the days.

[VivaHate]

2 weeks ago at my first appointment, my midwife said "no runny eggs".

I'm going to have them for tea tonight after reading this

[Raxacoricofallapatorius]

It is commonly discussed on here. My eldest is 8 and it was mentioned regularly when she was in utero.

However, it's news to you op and good news too. Enjoy!

[LibrariesGaveUsP0wer]

Glad you are pleased.

But fairly sure it was true when I had my eldest and she's nearly 7.