Undercooked sausage pregnancy

[Dusty12345]

Hi all, I’m 30 weeks pregnant and feeling very anxious. I went to a bbq yesterday and I ate half of an undercooked sausage before I realised. It was black on the outside so I had naively assumed it was properly cooked!

I’ve been reading all day about toxoplasmosis from undercooked meat. I’m particularly worried about this as it has no symptoms for the mother, and none for the baby when first born, but can make the baby blind or give them brain damage further down the line. I’m in the UK and they don’t test for it here.

Can anyone offer me any advice? Thank you!

You’ve eaten it so can’t change it now. Try not to worry, the risk is small 😘 Worth cutting into bbq meat in future though to check it’s done in the middle so you don’t need to worry then x

Thank you for your reply! I’m so thorough with meat when cooking at home, I’m so mad at myself I didn’t check first.

Does anyone have any experience with undercooked pork in pregnancy, and did it turn out ok?

Hi OP I worried a lot about this in my first pregnancy and read all about it! Scientific papers, research... I'm pregnant again and if I ate an undercooked sausage today I honestly don't think I would worry. My friend grew up in France eating undercooked (or even raw!) meat, unwashed salad and veg all her life, had cats and had still never caught it by the time she was pregnant (they test for it at the beginning of pregnancy there). So the chances of you being unlucky with one undercooked sausage is extremely minimal. I got anxious in my first pregnancy after eating raw chorizo in my first trimester. DC1 is 3 and completely healthy. I read plenty of similar experiences when I researched it at the time too.
Also if I remember correctly, like anything in pregnancy, the effect on the foetus is worse if caught early in pregnancy so if you're 30 weeks that's also good news.
Hope this helps a bit!

I remember this sort of fear. I googled it when similar happened to me years back and found that it’s pretty unlikely but even if you do, the later you are into your pregnancy, the more likely you are to pass it onto your baby but the less likely it is to have any serious effect (and in early pregnancy you’d be less likely to pass it onto baby but if you did, the more serious the effect). I’d say remember it’s vanishingly rare to contract toxo and that if you have, it’s not a forgone conclusion you’d pass it onto your baby, and even if both of those things occurred, as you’re in third trimester and your baby is substantially developed, it’s unlikely they would have any serious impact on them. Honestly I think you can relax and forget about it.

Honestly the risk to your baby is tiny. As the others have said at 30 weeks any risk is less harmful to your baby than earlier on. Please try not to fixate on it, step away from the articles on google, and just avoid barbecued meat for the rest of the summer.

ps. your thread title gave me the giggles. Sorry!

Oh god

The baby is fine. You don't have that.