Content
- the cleanest animals
- Toxoplasmosis, the dreaded disease
- Pregnant women and cat hair
- Cats can hurt the baby
- Conclusions
- The doctors
About the question: Is it dangerous to have cats during pregnancy? There are many false truths, misinformation, and "fairy tales".
If we had to pay attention to all the ancient wisdom of our predecessors... many would still believe that the Earth is flat and the Sun revolves around it.
Continue reading this Animal Expert article, and see for yourself. Find out if it's dangerous to have cats during pregnancy.
the cleanest animals
The cats, without a shadow of a doubt, are the cleanest pets who can socialize with people at home. This is already a very important point in your favor.
Humans, even the cleanest and most hygienic, are susceptible to infect each other with very different diseases. Likewise, animals, including the cleanest and best treated ones, are capable of transmitting diseases acquired by multiple routes to humans. That said, it sounds really bad, but when we explain the proper context, that is, in percentage form, the issue becomes clearer.
It's like saying that every plane on the planet can crash. That said, it sounds bad, but if we explain that airplanes are the safest mode of transport in the world, we are reporting a very contrasting scientific reality (although the first theory cannot be denied).
Something similar happens with cats. It is true that they can transmit some diseases, but in reality it is that they infect people with a lot of less diseases than others pets, and even me the diseases that humans transmit to each other.
Toxoplasmosis, the dreaded disease
Toxoplasmosis is a very serious disease that can cause brain damage and blindness in the fetuses of infected pregnant women. Some cats (very few) are carriers of said disease, such as many other pets, farm animals, or other animal and plant materials.
However, toxoplasmosis is a disease that is very difficult to transmit. Specifically, these are the only possible forms of contagion:
- Only if you handle the animal's feces without gloves.
- Only if the stool is more than 24 since its deposition.
- Only if the feces belong to a cat that is infected (2% of the feline population).
If the forms of contagion were not restrictive enough, the pregnant woman should also put her dirty fingers in her mouth, since there can only be contagion through ingestion of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, who is the one who causes this disease.
In fact, toxoplasmosis is mostly infected by infected meat ingestion that has been undercooked or eaten raw. They can also be spread through the ingestion of lettuce or other vegetables that have been in contact with feces of a dog, cat, or any other animal that carries toxoplasmosis and that food has not been properly washed or cooked before eating.
Pregnant women and cat hair
cat hair produce allergy to pregnant women allergic to cats. This aspect tries to show with a sense of humor that cat fur only produces allergies to women who were allergic before your pregnancy.
According to estimates there is a total of 13 to 15% of the population allergic to cats. Within this limited range of allergic people there are varying degrees of allergy. From people who only suffer a few sneezes if they have a cat around (the vast majority), to a minority of people who can give them asthma attacks with the simple presence of a cat in the same room.
Obviously, women with a very high cat allergy group, if they become pregnant, continued to have severe allergy problems in the presence of a cat. But it is assumed that no woman very allergic to cats that when she becomes pregnant decides to live with a cat.
Cats can hurt the baby
This theory, so silly that it heads this point, is belied by the huge cases in which cats defended small children, and not so small, of aggressions by dogs or other people. The opposite is true: cats, especially female cats, are very dependent on young children, and worry a lot when they get sick.
Furthermore, there have been situations in which it was precisely the cats who warned the mothers that something had happened to their babies.
It is true that the arrival of a baby at home can cause some discomfort for cats and dogs. In the same way, it can provoke a similar sensation to the siblings of the newly arrived child. But it is a natural and fleeting circumstance that will quickly disappear.
Conclusions
I suppose after reading this article, you've come to the conclusion that a cat is absolutely innocuous for a pregnant woman.
The only preventive measure that a pregnant woman should take if she has a cat at home will be refrain from cleaning the cat's litter box without gloves. The husband or any other person in the house must do this function during the period of pregnancy of the mother-to-be. But the pregnant woman should also refrain from eating raw meat and will have to wash the vegetables for the salads very well.
The doctors
It's sad that thethere are still doctors to recommend to pregnant women that get rid of your cats. This kind of absurd advice is a clear sign that the doctor is not well informed or trained. Because there are a multitude of medical studies on toxoplasmosis that focus on the contagion vectors of the disease, and cats are one of the most unlikely.
It's as if a doctor advised a pregnant woman to ride a plane because the plane could crash. Absurd!
