An Auckland woman lost her first pregnancy due to toxoplasmosis, a disease spread by cats, and attributes the tragedy to New Zealand’s “laid-back” maternity care.
Despite adhering to precautions against the disease, Lana told legacy media she suspects she contracted it from takeaway food. Her baby suffered severe health complications, leading to the couple’s painful decision to terminate the pregnancy. She believes more frequent scans and early screening for toxoplasmosis, as practiced in some other countries, could have prevented the disease’s impact on her baby.
The woman’s experience highlights concerns about the limited prenatal care in New Zealand, where routine screening for toxoplasmosis is not conducted, and only two ultrasounds are recommended during pregnancy.
Health professionals acknowledge told legacy media that while more frequent scans and screening could potentially catch issues earlier, the current system lacks the resources and funding to implement such measures universally.
The NZ College of Midwives points out that false positives and the complexity of interpreting results also pose challenges. The woman hopes her story will prompt a reevaluation of maternity care practices to prevent similar losses for other expectant mothers.
Image credit: freestocks
Don’t eat takeaways sweetie when your preggers. Too many risks. If you’re nOt carrying a child then you’ve only got yourself to worry about, easy to get over a little bit of fOod poisoning as a young person with no foetus in tow. Simple really, but people don’t like to blame themselves… because it’s painful.
Lots of pregnancy issues these days eh…