Ecoli infection in pregnancy?

[NewhereN]

Has anyone here experienced a bowel accident in pregnancy causing issues with infection? I am 10 weeks and was out on a walk and had an accident. When I got home my liner was all soiled and although I’ve cleaned up I’m very anxious in case it travelled up and could damage my baby. Could anyone advise? x

You worry that you infected yourself?

I didn't have this happen but I did test positive for E.Coli once when I was pregnant, the midwife picked it up from a routine urine test at my normal appointment, asked me to request antibiotics from the GP and it was sorted.

Yes

Thank you for your reply, I really appreciate it x

All of us are to some extent colonised by many types of E.Coli. Most types are harmless. Even the bad types of E.Coli you may have immunity to (they can't make you sick right now). If they are going to make you sick, you got it from yourself, you already had it, and you dont' say you were feeling sick already, so unlikely to change status just because it got moved around your own body a bit.

If you get signs of an UTI then seek treatment quickly because UTIs are horrid.

Yes, I’m worried that bacteria travelled up the vaginal canal.

Thanks so much for your advise. I get so many uti’s so am ready to act if that happens, but just so afraid in case some of the matter travelled up my vagina and could hurt the baby. I spoke to the midwife and she says it’s rare and to look out for changes in discharge etc. but just so scared! x

Sorry not quite the same situation but I had a c section 4 months ago and due to being type 1 diabetic I had a special type of dressing put on with a little machine attached that bleeps to let you know if it’s still all good or there’s any leaking, anyway I was still in hospital 6 days later so went back to the antenatal clinic where they removed the dressing and swabbed it and it came back positive for E. coli. This dressing was not moist whatsoever and was stuck down watertight yet it still had E. coli bacteria so it happens. I didn’t actually have any symptoms of an infection and the scar was looking good x

Please don't worry, unless you've had preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) it'd be unbelievably rare to harm the baby, the risk is pretty much zero. That's because poo would have had to travel against gravity all the way up the vagina to the cervix (the vaginal canal is relatively long), and then through the very thick mucus plug (which is designed to protect baby from the outside world), before it could even reach the membranes surrounding the baby. It's totally normal to get lots of worries during pregnancy but this is just so unlikely to reach your baby or cause any harm 💜 even if you begged the GP they wouldn't give you antibiotics unless you had any signs of an infection (pain, foul discharge, etc) because it's so vanishingly unlikely

I would recommend watching for the symptoms of a UTI. I had acute kidney infection from e.coli a few years ago, and it was very nasty. If you get symptoms along with a temperature, contact your doctor.

Thank you so so much for your post, it is so incredibly reassuring and has really helped me to rationalise and relax ❤️ Thank you so much xx