Risk of vomit to baby

[Aprilflowers99]

Hello, just want some advice around a recent incident I'm concerned about.

A visitor at our home threw up in the middle of the night. My husband cleaned it up with gloves and a face mask on, then he washed his hands and hit feet (as he has been crawling on the carpet to clean it). I am 17 weeks pregnant and suffer from high anxiety so I am worried about being a possible exposure of something bad towards my baby.

Apart from Norovirus and regular stomach bugs, should I be concerned about catching anything from air exposure to the vomit or my husband being in such close proximity to it? The guest has gone home and reports they still feel nauseous but has not vomitted since (it's been over 24 hours since the incident). Any help would be much appreciated!

It depends what caused them to vomit.
Food poisoning - you'll only get ill if you ate the same bad food.
What you're calling stomach bugs are usually viruses and you'll be unwell for a bit then ok.
Then there many diseases and bacterial infections which might be contagious and you'd need to take special precautions. Had the guest been abroad recently?

In the vast vast majority of cases your unborn child is very well protected.

Is your midwife aware of your anxiety? There will be very many things which might spark your anxiety as your pregnancy progresses and then when your baby is born.

I would suggest talking to your gp/midwife/perinatal MH team. This is not a normal level of anxiety to have. What do you think happens to parents who have other children who get sick while they are pregnant? People who work in hospitals/care homes/schools/hospitality and a million and one other places? Unless there is some missing critical information here about some kind of horrendous underlying infective disease being carried by this visitor you aren't going to catch something from simply being in the vicinity of someone who threw up once.

What support are you getting for your mental health? If none, please speak to your GP or midwife.

Thank you for your response.

The guest is a minor under 18 and has not been abroad (to Africa) since April 2023. They were born in the UK and, to my knowlege, they do not have any diseases of concern. We went out dinner earlier but had different meals and they had initially stated they may have thrown up due to eating to much, though symptoms of nausea persist.

I do suspect much/most of this is anxiety. I am on medication for anxiety, I am currently in therapy for anxiety, my midwife has further reffered me to community mental health services and my workplace is working with me to manage my anxiety. I have struggled all throughout this pregnancy as I have been concerned one thing after the next will harm my baby. I am improving but I do continue to get triggered by such incidents as I as I do suffer from health anxiety and tend to catostrophize a lot.

I am really appreciating all of the feedback, thank you all.

@Aprilflowers99 please don't beat yourself up about being anxious, best to ask than be left spiralling on your own. I think I would also question that one, mainly because I wouldn't know what to look out for or be aware of, unlike people who already have kids or work in an environment where they are around ill people as another poster commented.

Like you I catastrophise alot, a few days later after some sleep I have a much calmer approach to the issue yet it's not easy in that moment.

It's good that you are getting help for the anxiety and aware of your own ways. Be kind to yourself x

My kids have been throwing up on and off for about a month - such is October and back to school. I'm 24 weeks pregnant and went down with one of the delightful bugs they brought home. All is well with me and the bump. Try not to worry xx