Can food poisoning harm a fetus

Food poisoning during pregnancy | March of Dimes

Food poisoning happens when you eat or drink something with harmful bacteria (germs) in it.

Normal changes in your body during pregnancy may make you more likely to get food poisoning.

During pregnancy, food poisoning can cause serious problems for you and your baby, including premature birth, miscarriage and stillbirth.

Wash your hands before handling food and learn how to handle food safely. Don’t eat foods that commonly cause food poisoning.

If you think you have food poisoning, call your health care provider right away.

What is listeriosis and how can it affect pregnancy?

Listeriosis is a kind of food poisoning caused by Listeria bacteria. During pregnancy, you can pass the bacteria to your baby. This can cause problems, including:

• Miscarriage. This is when a baby dies in the womb before 20 weeks of pregnancy. 
• Stillbirth. This is when a baby dies in the womb after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
• Preterm labor and premature birth. These are labor and birth that happen too early, before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Babies born prematurely may have health problems and birth and later in life.
• Low birthweight. This is when a baby is born weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces.
• Life-threatening infections in your baby, including bacteria in the blood (called bacteremia) and meningitis. Meningitis is an infection that causes swelling in the brain and spinal cord. Infected babies may have health problems after birth, including seizures, blindness and problems with the brain, heart and kidneys.

Listeria may be in the soil, water, on animals and in animal waste. The most common cause of listeriosis is eating food with Listeria in it. Foods that are most likely to have Listeria include:

• Unpasteurized milk and foods made with it. If milk is pasteurized, it’s been heated to kill germs. Look for the word “pasteurized” on the label.
• Soft cheeses, like feta, Brie, Camembert, Roquefort and Mexican-style cheeses, like queso fresco, queso blanco, Panela and Asadero
• Deli meat, hot dogs, juice from hot dogs and dry sausages that are chilled or at room temperature
• Unwashed fruits, vegetables or sprouts
• Cold salads from delis or salad bars
• Refrigerated patés or meat spreads (Canned meat spreads are safe.)
• Refrigerated smoked seafood, including nova-style, lox, kippered, smoked and jerky

How do you know if you have listeriosis?

Signs and symptoms of listeriosis usually start a few days after eating food contaminated by Listeria, but they may not happen for up to 2 months. They’re usually mild and flu-like. Your health care provider can test your blood to see if you have listeriosis.  

Call your provider right away if you have:

• Being confused or having trouble with balance
• Fever or chills
• Headache
• Muscle aches
• Nausea (feeling sick to your stomach) or diarrhea
• Seizures
• Stiff neck

What is salmonellosis and how can it affect pregnancy?

Salmonellosis is a kind of food poisoning caused by Salmonella bacteria. Salmonellosis can cause problems during pregnancy, including:

• Dehydration. This is when you don’t have enough water in your body. Signs and symptoms of dehydration include feeling dizzy or lightheaded, having a fast heartbeat, having dark-colored urine and having a dry mouth and lips.
• Bacteremia
• Meningitis
• Reactive arthritis (also called Reiter’s syndrome). This condition can cause swelling or pain in joints, like the knees, ankles and toes.

You can pass salmonellosis to your baby during pregnancy. If your baby is born with salmonellosis, she may have diarrhea and fever after birth. She also may develop meningitis.

You can get infected with Salmonella in two ways:

1. By touching an infected animal. Salmonella can be found in poop, soil, water (including fish tank water), food and bedding of infected animals, including pets. Salmonella germs can spread easily to an animal’s fur, feathers and scales. Animals that are most likely to carry Salmonella include reptiles (turtles, lizards, snakes) and poultry (chickens, ducks, geese).
2. By eating foods that are contaminated with Salmonella. These foods may look and smell normal, even if they’re contaminated.

Foods that often have Salmonella include:

• Raw or undercooked poultry, meat or fish. Cooking these items fully kills Salmonella.
• Raw or undercooked eggs and foods made with them. Salmonella can pass from chickens to their eggs. Even eggs that look normal can have Salmonella. Don’t eat food made with raw eggs, including homemade mayonnaise, hollandaise sauce, Caesar salad dressing, cookie dough, frostings and homemade ice cream.
• Unpasteurized milk, milk products and juice, or foods made from them. Milk and juice often are pasteurized. Look for the word “pasteurized” on the product label.
• Foods that come in contact with animal poop in the soil or water where they grow. These include mushrooms, fruits, vegetables and vegetable sprouts, like alfalfa, clover, radish and mung beans.
• Food that comes into contact with Salmonella while you’re making or serving it. For example, if you’re infected and don’t wash your hands after using the bathroom, you can spread the infection to food. Or if you use the same knife to cut raw chicken and tomatoes and don’t wash the knife in between, the knife can pass Salmonella from the chicken to the tomatoes.

How do you know if you have salmonellosis?

You may be at increased risk of getting salmonellosis if you:

• Have reduced stomach acid from using medicines for heartburn (called antacids), like Tums^®.
• Have recently used antibiotics. Antibiotics are medicines that kill infections caused by bacteria.
• Have a digestive condition called inflammatory bowel disease (also called IBD). Digestion is the process of how your body breaks down food after you eat.
• Have a weak immune system or an illness like HIV, sickle cell disease or malaria
• Travel to places that don’t have good sanitation systems. This means they don’t have toilets and clean water for cooking and washing.
• Have a pet bird or reptile
• Live and eat in group housing, like a dormitory

Signs of salmonellosis usually start a half day to 3 days after contact and last for 4 to 7 days. To test for salmonellosis, your health care provider takes a stool sample (a sample of your poop) and sends it to a lab for testing.

Call your provider right away if you have any signs or symptoms of salmonellosis, including:

• Belly pain
• Blood in your poop or dark or amber-colored urine (pee)
• Dehydration
• Fever or chills
• Headache
• Muscle pains
• Nausea, diarrhea or throwing up

How is food poisoning treated?

Treatment depends on how sick you are. You may not need any treatment, or your provider may treat you with antibiotics to help keep you and your baby safe. If you have food poisoning, drink lots of water to help you stay hydrated (have water in your body). If you’re severely dehydrated (don’t have enough water in your body), you may need to go to the hospital for treatment.

How can you protect yourself and your baby from food poisoning during pregnancy?

Here’s what you can do:

• Wash your hands right before handling food. Wash your hands well with soap and water after using the bathroom.
• Wash your hands well with soap and water after touching animals or their food, bedding, tanks or waste.
• Don’t eat foods that are likely to be contaminated with Listeria or Salmonella.
• Handle foods safely whenever you wash, prepare, cook and store them. Wash knives, cutting boards and dishes used to prepare raw meat, fish or poultry before using them for other foods.

More information

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Food and Drug Administration

Last reviewed: May, 2016

Food Poisoning During Pregnancy: What To Do

Written by Rachel Reiff Ellis

In this Article

• Types of Food Poisoning
• Symptoms of Food Poisoning During Pregnancy
• Home Remedies for Food Poisoning When Pregnant
• When to See a Doctor About Food Poisoning When Pregnant
• Complications of Food Poisoning When Pregnant
• Preventing Food Poisoning When Pregnant

It’s common to have morning sickness when you’re pregnant. But sometimes your symptoms might come from something else -- food poisoning.

How can you tell if it’s a foodborne illness that’s making you sick? Once you know it is, how can you treat it safely when you have a baby on board?

Types of Food Poisoning

Your immune system is weaker than usual when you’re pregnant, so it’s harder for your body to fight off germs that might hitch a ride on food and make you feel bad.

You can get food poisoning when you eat foods contaminated with:

• Bacteria
• Parasites
• Viruses
• Certain chemicals

There are many types of food poisoning. Some are more common, and more dangerous, when you’re pregnant.

• Listeriosis. This comes from listeria bacteria. Pregnant women are 13 times more likely to get listeriosis than other people. It can lurk in ready-to-eat meats like hot dogs and cold cuts. Poultry, seafood, and dairy products can have it, too, especially if they’re not pasteurized. It can grow even on foods that are cold in the refrigerator.
• Escherichia coli (E. coli). This bacteria lives in your gut naturally. Still, you can get sick if you eat contaminated fruits and vegetables, raw or undercooked meats, or unpasteurized milk and fruit juices with certain types of E. coli.
• Salmonella. This bacteria causes something called salmonellosis. Most often, you get it from undercooked or raw eggs, meats, poultry, or unpasteurized foods. You can also get it if you eat food that has touched soil or animal poop infected with salmonella.
• Campylobacter. You get this bacteria mainly through contaminated chicken or unpasteurized foods.
• Norovirus. This is the main cause of foodborne illness in the U.S. The virus spreads easily through contaminated food and drinks.

Symptoms of Food Poisoning During Pregnancy

It can be tricky to know when food poisoning is to blame for your sickness. Sometimes, germs from food can make you sick right away. Other times, they hang around in your body for days or even weeks before you have symptoms.

Usually, it causes:

• Stomach pain
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Stomach cramps
• Dehydration

Often, food poisoning can feel like the flu, because you might have fever, headache, and body aches along with your other things.

Home Remedies for Food Poisoning When Pregnant

When you’re pregnant, it’s more than just your health you’re protecting. Some bouts of food poisoning can pose problems for your baby, whose immune system isn’t strong enough yet to fight off germs.

When you start having symptoms that seem like food poisoning, call your doctor right away. They can help you figure out if it is food poisoning, and if so, what may have caused it.

You may be able to handle your symptoms at home with your doctor’s guidance. However, if you're vomiting and having diarrhea, you may need treatment at the doctor’s office or even a hospital. Don’t take any over-the-counter medications without talking to your doctor first.

If your case is mild enough to treat at home, work on rest and rehydration. Get fluids however you can: ice chips, small sips of water or clear liquids, or by drinking a sports drink with electrolytes in it. Wait until you’re sure your vomiting is over before you try to eat. Take your first foods slowly, and stick with bland, non-greasy foods.

When to See a Doctor About Food Poisoning When Pregnant

Your food poisoning needs professional treatment if you’re having:

• Signs of dehydration like excessive thirst, dry lips, little to no urine, or dizziness
• Vomiting or diarrhea that won’t stop
• Severe pain in your abdomen
• A fever higher than 101 F
• Blood or pus in your stool
• Black or tarry stool

Call your doctor right away if you have one or more of these problems. They’ll do tests on your blood or stool to find out what's making you sick. You may need treatment with antibiotics. They’ll also want to be sure your body has enough fluids. You may need an IV to help your body rehydrate.

Complications of Food Poisoning When Pregnant

Certain kinds of food poisoning are very dangerous for your unborn baby.

If you get listeriosis , you may have no symptoms at all. However, you can pass it on to your baby. That can cause serious health problems like:

• Paralysis
• Blindness
• Seizures
• Issues with the brain, heart, or kidneys

At worst case, listeriosis can cause preterm labor, low birthweight, and even miscarriage or stillbirth.

Salmonellosis can also pass to your baby and put them at risk of serious complications like meningitis.

Campylobacter can cause miscarriage if you get it early in your pregnancy. It’s also very dangerous if you have it at the time you give birth and pass it to your newborn. Infection in a new baby can be life-threatening.

For you, the most common complication from food poisoning in general is dehydration. Some foodborne illnesses, especially E. coli, can also cause kidney damage.

Preventing Food Poisoning When Pregnant

You can protect yourself from many kinds of food poisoning, whether you’re pregnant or not, by being careful about what you eat and how you handle it.

Safe food handling tips:

• Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water before and after you touch food.
• Don’t let raw meat come in contact with anything you’ll eat raw, like produce, or food that’s already prepared.
• Keep perishable foods refrigerated or frozen.
• Clean fruits and vegetables before you eat or cook them.
• Wash utensils and food prep surfaces after you use them.
• Cook food to a high enough temperature to kill germs.
• Refrigerate leftovers right away. Don’t eat food that’s been sitting out or that has expired.

Certain foods should be off the menu until after your baby is born. Don’t eat or drink:

• Unpasteurized dairy products, like raw milk and some brands of soft cheese
• Raw or undercooked meat, poultry, fish, or shellfish
• Runny or raw eggs, or things that contain them, like cookie dough and homemade eggnog. Pasteurized raw eggs are OK.
• Hot dogs or deli meat, unless heated to 165 degrees
• Refrigerated patés or meat spreads. Jarred or canned are OK.
• Premade chicken, ham, or seafood salads from a deli
• Smoked fish, unless it came from a can or you cook it
• Unpasteurized juice or cider
• Sprouts

Also pay attention to food recalls. Companies have to tell the public if they find out something they’ve sold is making people sick.

Poisoning and pregnancy. What to do?

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