convinced I've harmed my fetus...

[Anonymous]

OK, I am 21 weeks along & so stupidly, I was not thinking & this evening I had a Vietnamese sub that had pate & coldcuts. Subsequently, I have had gastrointestinal issues & have convinced my paranoid self that I have given my baby Listeria...

Not sure it is worth a weekend call to the OB, but I really want a blood test & searching Dr. Google has not allayed my fears.

Any thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Listeria is really rare. You are probably fine.

I was at 12 weeks when I went away to a weekend in Chicago with some friends of mine from grad school. Woke up that monday in the hotel, diarrhea and threw up. I was convinced of the same thing. I called my dr. and they said unless I had a fever I shouldn't worry.

How bad are you throwing up? I just threw up once, but got nauseous several times.

[Anonymous]

I would call the OB. It is probably not listeria (I read symptoms of that appear within 2-30 days, not immediately), but if it is they can treat it immediately and allay your fears and any risk to the baby.

[Anonymous]

I had turkey subs from Subway throughout both of my pregnancies. Listeria is very rare.

[Anonymous]

I agree - you're probably fine. If you haven't been eating food like this, your system might just be reacting to new and different food. That and let's face it, pregnancy makes you react strangely to things you've always been ok with. Call your doc if it will make you feel better (thats what they are there for I always try to tell myself) but I am sure your system is just in pate and cold cut shock

[Anonymous]

Try not to worry yourself about that. I looked at the APA website, and according to their statistics, only 675 pregnant woman a year get listeria. It is very, very rare.

[Anonymous]

Like others have said, listeria is really VERY rare and the reason doctors tell you to stay away from cold cuts is that if it does happen, it's serious, and I guess they figure it's easy enough to stay away from lunchmeat. (Newsflash: I LOVE SANDWICHES!). To me, it sounds more like you might have gotten a touch of food poisoning or just ate something that didn't agree with you (i.e. pate!). Pregnant stomaches can be really sensitive too, as you know. Hydrate yourself really well and, if you are frightened, call your doctor if for no other reason than to reassure yourself because, if you're really "convinced" you harmed your fetus, you're probably stressing yourself out! (and probably over nothing).

FWIW, when I was 19 weeks I got a tiny electric shock from my hairdryer. I was CONVINCED that I'd harmed my baby but read all this stuff about how there was nothing you could do about it anyway, etc etc. To make matters worse, it was during that time when you don't feel a ton of movement all that regularly, so any still periods were interpreted by me as signs that baby was a goner. I didn't call my health care provider and I don't really know why -- a combination of feeling like I was going to hear bad news, and reading on google that there was nothing they could do, etc, or finally that I actually did feel the baby moving. I told him about it the next time I was in and he said "next time, call me immediately. I would have put your mind at rest." Sometimes that's what they're there for, more than just reacting to emergencies, they are there to allay our worries over things we think are emergencies that are not.

Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

My doctor told me that in his 30 years of practicing medicine, he had never seen a case of listeria. So I had no problem eating Subway and Quiznos!

[Anonymous]

My doctor told me there are about 40 cases of pregnancy problems caused by listeria a year, so the chances a pretty minimal.
Plus it takes more than month to develop any symptons so maybe you got food poisoning or some unpleasant gastric problem, but not listeria.
Your baby is fine

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like others have said, listeria is really VERY rare and the reason doctors tell you to stay away from cold cuts is that if it does happen, it's serious, and I guess they figure it's easy enough to stay away from lunchmeat. (Newsflash: I LOVE SANDWICHES!). To me, it sounds more like you might have gotten a touch of food poisoning or just ate something that didn't agree with you (i.e. pate!). Pregnant stomaches can be really sensitive too, as you know. Hydrate yourself really well and, if you are frightened, call your doctor if for no other reason than to reassure yourself because, if you're really "convinced" you harmed your fetus, you're probably stressing yourself out! (and probably over nothing).

FWIW, when I was 19 weeks I got a tiny electric shock from my hairdryer. I was CONVINCED that I'd harmed my baby but read all this stuff about how there was nothing you could do about it anyway, etc etc. To make matters worse, it was during that time when you don't feel a ton of movement all that regularly, so any still periods were interpreted by me as signs that baby was a goner. I didn't call my health care provider and I don't really know why -- a combination of feeling like I was going to hear bad news, and reading on google that there was nothing they could do, etc, or finally that I actually did feel the baby moving. I told him about it the next time I was in and he said "next time, call me immediately. I would have put your mind at rest." Sometimes that's what they're there for, more than just reacting to emergencies, they are there to allay our worries over things we think are emergencies that are not.

Good luck!!

Hee. Pregnant with my first, one day I leaned way over and felt an odd "snap" in my belly. My first thought was "oh my God, I've broken the baby's neck." I immediately laid on the bed and stayed there until I felt him move again. Even then I knew I was being silly, but I couldn't help myself.

All this to say, we have all been there. It is highly, highly unlikely that you have listeria. The baby is fine.

[Anonymous]

everything is probably fine but ask your doctor for peace of mind. I had really bad food poisining during my pregnancy and DD is a happy, healthy two year old.