How likely is listeria from couscous salad?

[Losgann]

Hi all, hoping you can help me relax a bit - I ate some of a prepacked couscous salad last week from the supermarket and now I'm feeling really anxious that I might have exposed my baby to listeria. Is this likely? The thing which worries me most is that it can take a long time to show up.

I am really struggling with anxiety and am so terrified I might inadvertently harm the baby, I feel worried about everything I eat, drink or use at the moment. Help me get some perspective back?!

Couscous is like dots of pasta: if you ate it from the supermarket (chilled) and it didn't have any 'high risk' foods in it (eg soft cheese etc) then the chances of you getting listeria from a couscous salad are slim to nil.

Really, really, really, really tiny. Has a prepacked salad ever given you listeria before?? Also, it is not something you are going to have without noticing.

Seriously though, if you are agonising this much, you might need to speak to your midwife for support with prenatal anxiety. Do you have preexisting issues with anxiety?

Eh what now? I bought a prepacked lunch every day at work when I was pregnant. It'll be fine.

Yes I have struggled with anxiety before Queen, this is an IVF pregnancy and I am terrified of doing something wrong. I feel like every day there's something new that I might have done to worry about. I have talked to the midwife and they have referred me to someone but it's not until mid-January.

It's almost a week since I ate it and I don't really know why I have just thought of it again now, I didn't think anything of it at the time! There was no soft cheese in it, just roasted veg and I'm fairly sure my friend who bought it would have put it straight in the fridge on getting it.

I didn't even know this was something we were meant to avoid? I had one yesterday .

You deffo need help with your anxiety. I get it too and I had an anxiety disorder pre-pregnancy anyway. I've been a lot better since I got out of the first trimester as I was mostly terrified of miscarriage and now I know objectively the risks are small for anything going wrong. I guess you just have to try and remind yourself that even most of the food precautions are just that, precautions, they don't mean that if you eat them you will be harming baby, you know? The risks are usually tiny. And then try and distract yourself from it and make sure you're getting the MH support you need, it's a pity you have to wait that long, when were you referred? I'm pretty sure NICE/RCOG guidelines say pregnant women should be fast-tracked to MH services so if you're waiting a long time in your area for an appt that's really bad.