A dangerous (really) pregnancy infection with subtle, generic symptoms that could be mistaken for a flu. Know and avoid listeriosis!
Right at the most beautiful, when the baby bump is now the protagonist of your life and the expectation of your child becomes anxious, you get sick. You get a fever until you shiver, your head hurts or a sort of cervical pain occurs, you may have dysentery, nausea or even episodes of vomiting. It might seem like a flu or congestion, but if you’re pregnant it’s good to know if it’s not something else.
Symptoms of Listeriosis in Pregnancy
Muscle pains, high temperature and stomach discomfort are part of the flu-like symptoms, which is the most common in the world. But these symptoms in pregnancy can instead be the wake-up call for listeriosis. This is an infection that mothers-to-be definitely dislike (and the dislike is mutual) for at least two reasons:
First, it mainly affects pregnant women: if you have never heard of listeriosis and have not met people with it. infection, it is because it is not frequent at all, we are talking about one person in 140,000. But when you get pregnant , listeriosis becomes a topic you should be aware of. About 35% of cases of listeriosis concernpregnant women . A very high percentage, due to the hormonal changes taking place when you are pregnant, which are fertile ground for the development of the disease.
Second, it can create more serious problems precisely in the fetus: not only is it easy to run into listeriosis during the nine months (particularly in the third trimester), but this special period is also the one in which this toxic infection can really do damage to the baby: the fetal death in utero resulting in miscarriage is very high, although in most cases the newborn will be born even with congenital listeriosis and in a small percentage of cases the baby may not have been infected by the mother through the placenta, and therefore be born in good health.
When do the symptoms of listeriosis occur?
This disease has an incubation period of three weeks on average, but symptoms can also occur immediately, when you come into contact with the bacterium that causes it, or later, even two months after eating infected food.
So, if you have any doubts that you have eaten unsafe food, remember these times and don’t underestimate the symptoms that may arise many days later!
Of course, the sooner you discover that you have listeriosis, the sooner you can start treating it with antibiotic therapy. This helps to stem the damage and increases the hopes of averting the worst. Identifying the disease and immediately starting to fight it with drugs can also stop the infection that will not pass from the mother to the fetus, leaving him unharmed to sleep peacefully in the amniotic fluid.
Listeriosis and pregnancy foods: vegetables at risk
Some vegetables and foods of animal origin can be contaminated with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes which is the origin of listeriosis. Those who are pregnant know well that it is essential to wash vegetables well before eating them (raw) to avoid diseases such as toxoplasmosis . Also for listeriosis it is a fundamental practice to use a sponge or bicarbonate (which being sandy scrapes well) to clean the vegetables under plenty of water. The same advice applies to fruit, it does not matter if it will be peeled, better not risk it.
Also pay attention to how they are stored in the refrigerator, for example fruit salads and salads that are not consumed or side dishes of leftover cooked vegetables, as they could become contaminated in contact with other infected foods, such as meat kept on the same shelf to defrost. Use containers with lids!
Listeriosis and pregnancy: cheeses
Better to avoid those with a flowery rind (the tasty ones, which many like to eat and not eliminate) such as brie and camembert and moldy cheeses (with molds) such as gorgonzola or French Roqueroft.
Cheeses with a creamy consistency are also called soft cheeses and many of them are at risk of listeriosis. There are soft cheeses that are “indicted” because they are made with unpasteurized milk (and pasteurization is a half guarantee in warding off listeriosis), others that instead become contaminated in the environment during the processing phases. Let’s take stracchino and mozzarella, which are cheeses that are sometimes pasteurized and sometimes not. Both belong to the category of stretched curd cheeses and the manipulation process to make them could expose them to the danger of running into the Listeria bacterium. Just this year in France a buffalo mozzarella produced in Italy was withdrawn from the market for this reason, but the cases can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The advice is to buy cheeses likemascarpone , stracchino and mozzarella packaged with the indication “made with pasteurized milk”, which is an optional and not mandatory by law (unfortunately). The same indication applies to the consumption of milk (better UHT) and derivatives such as yogurt and cream. During pregnancy it is possible to consume hard cheeses such as fontina or Parmigiano Reggiano in all serenity (always remove the rind!), Spreads, ricotta, grilled cheeses and those that still indicate that they have been pasteurized . Let’s say that in pregnancy it gives more guarantee to be on the industrial product than on an artisanal product, as generally industrial products are subjected to specific tests before being placed on the market.
Listeriosis: how to organize the refrigerator during pregnancy?
It’s not just vegetables and cheeses that are the problem. The whole refrigerator must be organized and taken care of in a particular way during pregnancy (without becoming obsessive, of course!). In fact, here are the high-risk products of animal origin that require special precautions. Raw or undercooked meat, cured meats and fish must not be able to infect other foods in your refrigerator with Listeria. Here are the guidelines given by the American Food & Drug Administration .
– Keep the freezer shelves and chest clean.
– The temperature of the refrigerator must be kept below 4 ° C and the freezer at a temperature of – 17 ° C.
– Use containers with lids to separate dishes, raw or cooked. In particular, raw meat and fish must be well separated from everything else (and cook them as soon as possible!).
– After handling raw meats, carefully wash used kitchen utensils, shelves and hands.
– Eliminate expired foods from the refrigerator in a timely manner.
– Beware of fruit that comes from the ground, such as melons and watermelons. Their crust should be cleaned with a brush long and well. Once cut, how to store it? Strictly in the refrigerator and for a very few days.
“I’m afraid I got listeriosis even though I have no symptoms”
Have you eaten a slice of feta and are now convinced that you have caught this terrible infection? You do not have to worry at all, to warn you – in the unfortunate case – will be the symptoms we told you about. So beware of the increase in temperature, pain and discomfort that you will need to promptly communicate to your GP or gynecologist who follows your pregnancy . If the doubt that it is listeriosis is instead highlighted by the doctor, a blood test will be carried out in the vast majority of cases or the amniotic fluid (the latter only in the first trimester of pregnancy, when the fetus is small and it is possible to intervene in the sac). If Listeria monocytogenes is found by this test, you will be given specific antibiotics to fight the bacterium.
An important recommendation: listeriosis is one of the many things that worry future mothers and, if on the one hand it is good to take care of yourself and use some precautions, on the other hand we must remember that stress is a great enemy of pregnant women and that it is good to always keep calm and high spirits!
