I am 7 weeks pregnant and a couple of days ago, I went to a work function where the food was catered. There were mainly cold salad wraps with chicken, egg and ham, which I avoided due to the cold meat. I did however, find a vegetarian wrap with ingredients like pumpkin, eggplant, capsicum and spinach/lettuce. I ate one, thinking this was the best option, however, after some research I am freaking out! Should I be worried? Does this sound like something that would be a high risk for things like listeria?
8 Replies
If it was going to make you sick, it likely would have done by now. Being catered, I imagine the stuff would have been very fresh. It's stuff like subway, packaged sandwiches or salads, deli meats and stuff like that because the risk increases with how long it's been refrigerated not the actual food items themselves.
I'm sure you'll be fine!
Take a breath. You'll be absolutely fine. It had all vegetables, sounds like a fantastic option to me.
There are specific foods they do recommend you avoid while pregnant like runny egg and soft cheeses, but even if you did eat those foods the chances of anything bad happening are very very small, and when I had my son 23 years ago we ate everything without concern at all.
You are better off staying off the internet. There is a lot of very very wrong information and overly scary. If you look hard enough you will find something to terrify you. Get yourself a good well respected pregnancy book or speak to your GP.
But even if you happened to eat some soft cheese or some runny egg once in a while, it happens and you will most likely be fine.
I've never heard of vegetables being on the 'don't eat' list. You can't go your entire pregnancy avoiding vegetables, that is not healthy.
If you got listeria, youd know. All premade sandwiches are a risk youre right, and that includes prepacked salads and leaves from supermarket fyi, but no point stressing over whats done, sounds like youre fine.
"with about one in ten listeriosis cases (10%) in Australia occurring in pregnant women. The risk of
infection seems to be highest in the third trimester. It is important to note that while
listeriosis can be a very severe illness, the number of cases reported in Australia each year is
relatively rare, with around 65 total cases reported to health departments each year. Cases
may be rare, but the consequences are dire, with 1 in 5 cases (20%) of listeriosis in pregnant
women being fatal for the developing foetus."
This is from some government food website. The risks may be fatal for some, but the chances are low (1.3 babies a year in Australia, if my maths is correct).
Take a breath and relax!
Even if your food was contaminated by listeria, it is highly unlikely it'd make you ill. There's no point stressing yourself out at this stage.
Don't worry you'll be fine. I believe if fruit/vegetables aren't washed properly that's when they can cause an issue. My midwife told me the risk of that happening is extremely low, especially from reputable, clean places. I've been eating sushi (only cooked stuff) every week this pregnancy from a trusted sushi shop that makes it fresh and I haven't had an issue.
You'll be fine! I ate what I wanted, whenever I wanted , during pregnancy.
Cold meat. Runny eggs. Soft serve. Pre-made food. Pink steak. You name it. Not once did I get sick.
All the people I know who are what they wanted, NEVER got sick.
The way I looked at it was, "this food has never made me sick whilst not pregnant, so very slim chance I'd get sick eating it whilst pregnant ".
I even knew people that ate "mouldy cheeses" like Brie, and were fine.
Stop stressing so much about food.
Thats because as said above, the risk is very small, pregnant women are more susceptible to getting worse effects of listeria, and the problem is that if you do the outcomes are really serious. The problem is plenty of women end up with problem-free anecdotes and then believe that must mean that theres no risk at all.
I didn't know i was pregnamt for the first 3 months with my first. You can imagine all the things I ingested... me and baby both are both fine. Relax.