Toxoplasmosis - really anxious

[AOMum14]

Hi everyone,

A bit of background on me - I have health anxiety and lost my firstborn in the third trimester to severe abnormalities. Essentially I am a perfect recipe for pregnancy anxiety! I have a lot of support for this but does not stop attacks of different worries throughout the day.

Today I went to a resturant and had some (delicious) pork belly! Most of it looked well done, but some looked slightly pink in the fatty parts. Me being an idiot, I have always assumed pork was like chicken - it had to be welldone and as chicken can be 'pinker' when next to a bone, I placed pork in the same bracket. It's only after eating the majority of the pork belly that a family member spoke about how they cook pork belly medium.

I messaged my mum (because I am only 30 yrs old) and she said if it had crackling it meant it was fully cooked. My partner also said as it was falling apart that it was fully cooked and later called the resturant and spoke to a waitress who very quickly said it was slow cooked and well done. But I'm certain I saw some slightly pink. (Picture included - it's covered in gravy)

I am now so so scared I have toxomoplasmis and that I will lose this baby also. This is my own fault of course. I have called my midwife who is sending off some blood I gave last Wednesday to see if I am immune.

Any reassurence would be greatly appeciated - whether that be from someone who can reassure from a health standpoint or someone who knows how to cook pork belly!

Many thanks!

I don't see any pink.

if it were under cooked I would expect traces of blood on the plate.

You haven't said how many weeks / months pregnant you are, but you need to find more support to get you through this pregnancy and the first year of your baby's life.

Belly pork isn’t going to be white mean like chicken. It’s normal for it to have “colour” to it.

Pork belly is pinky in colour isn’t it ? You need mental health support or you’re going to have a really stressful pregnancy this is quite extreme over a bit of meat

That looks like a piece of cooked pork. I can't see anything raw? I would politely and respectfully say you are over thinking this one

As a chef I can reassure you that is cooked xx

Prob belly is usually slow cooked due to the fat which needs rendering, it’s not usually cooked medium in my experience. The meat is not always white though so that might be what you’re seeing. You are right that pork is like chicken, and should be cooked through, although I know it’s become trendy for some chefs to serve pork loin pink now but only if it’s top top quality.

I understand your worries - I ate beef wellington not realising the toxoplasmosis risk until afterwards and freaked out. It is super rare to catch it from meat though so please don’t worry x

I wanted to say thank you to everyone for taking time to comment and reassure me. It's very much appreciated.

I would also like to say thank you to anyone worried about my mental health. I am aware of my extreme reaction and that I have a lot of support in place. More than the majority of people - I am very lucky. Also, I wasn't clear on this, but the pink part is not in this picture (I cropped this picture as it was actually of my partner - it just had a portion of my food in place 🤣)

Also, it's worth mentioning that while my anxiety is extreme, what happened to me was extreme. In my sons case, exceedingly rare. You are more likely to be hit by lightening. Statistically speaking, I was more likely to catch toxoplasmosis, than I was for my son to have this particular condition. It has effected my understanding of risk which I spend a lot of time working on in therapy, but hopefully this explains why the idea of catching this illness feels quite scary and also possible to me.

I have had a subsequent pregnancy since the loss of my son - I got through it and I'm a great mum. Sometimes I just need to hear some reassurence from other mums out there. I'm not aiming to be dramatic or over the top - we all just have to do what we have to do to hold our babies and take them home. For me, sometimes, that's asking if my pork is cooked.

I hope that explains the weirdness of my post and thank you once again, it has helped!