Mistake She’s Made During Pregnancy Led to Baby’s Brain Infection
Mistake She’s Made During Pregnancy Led to Baby’s Brain Infection
In June 2014, a mother named Lucinda noticed that her 2-week-old son was acting quite strange and cried nonstop. At the time, her daughter was two years old. As a second time mother, Lucinda knew the difference between a cry alerting her to a serious issue and a hungry cry.
Apart from crying all day and his skin turning a shade of red, Ezra was also hot to the touch. When his mother took his temperature, it was nearing 102 degrees. Lucinda went on high alert immediately her 2-week-old son started exhibiting these strange symptoms. Listening to her gut instinct, Lucinda proceeded to rush her newborn baby to Children’s Hospital and Medical Center. At the hospital, Ezra underwent a spinal tap. As it turned out, the test revealed that Ezra had a severe case of listeria meningitis, a dangerous brain infection.
As a second time mother who already had a 2-year-old daughter, Lucinda had some experience with childbirth. She thought that she had taken all the right measures, just the same way as she had done with her 2-year-old daughter. Lucinda honestly believed that she had done every single thing right to ensure she delivered a safe and healthy baby. As such, she was naturally shocked and devastated upon realizing that her son was stricken with a serious case of listeria meningitis. Lucinda could not bring herself to believe what the doctors were telling her.
RELATED ARTICLE: All You Need To Know About Meningitis
Babies usually acquire listeria meningitis from their mothers at the time of delivery. Mothers typically acquire listeria meningitis from one or more of the food they have recently consumed. The life-threatening illness comes from a type of food that moms consume while pregnant. However, the question remains what Lucinda ingested that could have caused her son’s horrible infection at just two weeks old.
The culprit, in this case, was cold cuts. When served cold, refrigerated cheeses, deli products, and deli meats, usually host listeria bacteria. This type of bacteria is capable of living at refrigerated temperatures. Although they are generally safe for adults to ingest, pregnant women should not eat deli meats. The reason why pregnant women should avoid such products is that the babies in their wombs have weak immune systems. As a result, unborn babies simply can’t fight off listeria meningitis.
Foods such as hot dogs and deli meats like bologna, turkey, salami, and ham should be thoroughly heated and served steaming hot. If not, such foods should be considered unsafe for pregnant women.
Conclusion
According to Lucinda, she would have lost her son had his meningitis gone untreated. She, therefore, decided to share her story and warn other pregnant women about this life-threatening illness that almost took him from her. Every single parent should be made aware of this deadly infection. Additionally, every woman should know how eating cold cuts while pregnant can be potentially fatal for the babies in their womb.
The choices we make as parents can and almost always affect the well-being of our children. It does not matter whether we make the choices before or after their birth. As such, doing our due diligence and conducting research to find out what can be unsafe is significantly important.