Pregnancy anxiety/ CMV

[Northernsoul90]

Preface to this post, I have quite severe health anxiety which worsens during pregnancy. I am on meds for this and also undergoing CBT so I'm aware I am very much a worrier and my anxiety levels aren't 'normal'.

I'm just posting to ask how much do other pregnant women who have young children at home manage anxiety around illness or if they worry about it at all.

I seem to fixate on an illness for a number of weeks and totally panic over it, first it was listeria and now I'm really worrying about CMV. I've never heard of it before and the risks of it during pregnancy and have to admit I have not been careful around my 4 year old - I kiss her on the lips, we have shared cutlery and cups etc and I've not given it a second thought until I read an article about CMV and how to avoid it. I've now gone down a rabbit hole with this and feel really stupid and guilty for not being aware of it sooner. I was debating getting a TORCH screen done but in reality this might only serve to cause more anxiety as the results aren't always clear cut and it seems if I had been exposed not much can be done at this point.

Is this something other pregnant mums with young children worry about? Should I just try and put it to the back of my mind and forget it?

@Northernsoul90 i also experience a lot of anxiety around cmv and i dont have any advice really but what i do know is almost 80% of adults in UK are immune due ot childhood infection. But it doesnt stop my worrying about every cold my little one brings home that i catch!

I know I wish I could just let go of my worries but I find it really difficult. I can't believe I wasn't aware of CMV risks to be honest I'm always coming into contact with DDs saliva like finishing off a sandwich she's not eaten for instance without a second thought. Apparently that's how it's spread... its things you don't even think about though and just naturally do

@Northernsoul90 you sound very much like me with health anxiety increasing during pregnancy, was the same with my last pregnancy!

Yeah i was reading about it and its not airborne but contact based. Hopefully if you didnt have it as a child then you would have caught it well before pregnancy from her. But the way i try anr rationalise it to myself sometimes is that if i am worried about never having got it as a child then there's all the same reason for me to think that my child hasnt had it/doesnt have it as a child