Can I eat eggs laid by our chickens when pregnant?

[sizeofalentil]

We keep two chickens who have been giving us lots of eggs.

Trouble is, I only really like runny or soft eggs. I know eggs have been reclassified recently so you can eat soft eggs that have the British Lion Mark on them, but what about eggs from our own chickens?

I asked the midwife during my booking in appointment who said pregnant women shouldn't eat eggs at all and also mentioned a few other discredited old wives tails, so not entirely trusting of her opinion on this.

Are your chickens vaccinated?

I ate runny eggs from our chickens all the time when pregnant, figured the risk is salmonella and seeing as is been eating eggs from them for ages and never got ill itd be fine.

Lion branded eggs are vaccinated against salmonella so the risk with those is very small. I would assume your chickens aren't vaccinated? In which case I wouldn't risk soft cooked eggs.

I've been fairly relaxed about foods, but I wouldn't personally eat runny eggs without the Lion stamp.

My understanding is that the risk is to you - from salmonella - not the baby. Your immune system is suppressed when pregnant so you're more likely to catch it, albeit still unlikely.

I ate runny eggs when pregnant including eggs from farmers market (not stamped).

I should add, "and I was fine"!

I have a different opinion with things like listeria and toxoplasmosis that can harm the baby. Wouldn't risk that.

Salmonella can turn into salmonellosis which can be life threatening to mother and baby.

I personally wouldn't eat them. Weird as I was told by my midwife that it's the risk of listeria they worry about more than salmonella as chicken is safe to eat even though it carries salmonella whereas pate, eggs and seafood carry listeria. But don't qoute me on it as I'm just going off what the MW said lol x

Thank you. I'm not 100% sure if the chickens are vaccinated to be honest - they were a gift!

Thank you for your replies. I'll just have them hardboiled or hard poached for now and not risk it. Even though hard eggs are far inferior.

Only 6 more months of this anyway. It's just so infuriating as ALL of my favourite foods are off the list - pate, mouldy cheese, runny eggs, raw fish, liver, oysters, ultra-rare meat, and obviously - wine.

At least I don't have to clean the cats' litter trays or muck out the chickens though!