Ate undercooked chicken at 6 weeks pregnant

[Astronaut1298]

Hi all

It was mostly white but I think I ate 2 or 3 bites of undercooked chicken as it was weirdly soft and abit weird tasting. I looked down and it was pink :( I didn't notice properly as I was eating it with salad and Naan bread and only realised after I was done with the Naan bread and was eating the chicken on it's own

I am 6 weeks pregnant really worried now

Hey, how have you been overnight? I don't think raw meat in itself is dangerous to baby, it's more the fact that it could make you ill and make it harder to get nutrients to baby etc. If you have got food poisoning hopefully the baby will still be absolutely fine but it would be worth ringing your midwife/GP or 111 for some advice. Hope you're ok x

@SnookyPook thank you for replying x i've been completely fine overnight and no issues at all thankfully. I will ring the midwife for advice just incase .. thank you xx

I had food poisoning in my first pregnancy and was really unwell. The midwife told me that everything should be OK providing I remained hydrated and kept an eye out for any bleeding.

I'm sure you will be fine, it's a very very small risk.

Congratulations 🎉

We are designed to protect growing foetuses in the womb.

I had the most severe sickness I've ever known (vomited 40 times in 24 hours) when I was a few weeks pregnant and whereas I felt absolutely appalling, a scan showed that my baby was blissfully unaware of my illness.

Ahh thank you all for your replies and reassurance! I feel so much better reading them, during this time it's so easy to worry about every little thing 😅

If you’ve felt ok I really wouldn’t worry. It obviously must not have caused any food poisoning

Hoping you’re feeling a bit better about this now OP and not suffering any ill effects yourself from the chicken. I don’t think that a couple of bites is going to do any harm but I understand your concern. Congratulations.

I had campylobacter poisoning (I think from undercooked chicken) during pregnancy and the baby was fine. Went to the gp more quickly then I usually would for stomach issues and got the impression she took it more seriously than she would have if not pregnant, hence stool sample to identify exact cause, but it was all fine in the end apart from a week or so of pretty unpleasant toilet trips and feeling even more exhausted than usual. No effect on baby.

I will say though that the environmental health people, who called once we knew what it was, said for campylobacter it takes days or even a week or so for symptoms to start (it was a week after I'd stopped eating a chicken item at a buffet half way through as it seemed an odd texture). So you don't always know quickly if food poisoning.