Digging into toxoplasmosis
I am currently 34 weeks pregnant and gardening is getting complicated. I can garden standing up, or I can garden sitting down, but switching between the two regularly is now completely impossible. At Brockwell Park where I volunteer, I think the team are genuinely concerned I’m doing more damage than good to the garden as they see me lumbering into the middle of the borders, plants parting before me as before an elephant through the thicket.
Once you’re pregnant you are presented with a whole list of things you can’t do and mustn’t eat (coffee, alcohol, sushi, soft cheese). I was therefore thrilled when a friend recommended a brilliant book called ‘Expecting Better’ which debunks many of the myths around maternity and is incredibly permissive (perhaps why it’s so successful). Having read that I could drink the odd glass of wine and enjoy a coffee a day, I turned to pages about dangerous activities (hot tubs, flying, tattoos, cats) and on the last page I read:
‘The Bottom Line: Changing the cat litter is fine… but gardening is associated with an increased risk of toxoplasmosis. It should be avoided.’
I couldn’t believe it. At the time I was in my second trimester, sitting drinking a cup of tea with garden mud under my fingernails from a morning on the veg patch. I’d researched what I could and couldn’t do quite thoroughly, but no one had told me not to garden.
Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by one of the world’s most common parasites, toxoplasma gondii which is found in infected meat, in cat faeces and, most frustratingly for gardeners, in the soil (thanks to the cats). For most adults, toxoplasmosis is completely harmless and symptomless. Unfortunately, whilst some risks are flagged in pregnancy to avoid discomfort to the mother rather than any risk to the baby (eg salmonella or lifting heavy bags), toxoplasmosis is not one of them. Catching it in pregnancy really is often disastrous, causing miscarriage and still birth, and for those babies that do survive, leading to ongoing complications, some of which only manifest themselves in a child’s teens. Reading about it as a pregnant gardener it is easy to get pretty scared.
Reassuringly, the transmission of toxoplasmosis is actually extremely rare and the most common way people catch it is through rare or cured meat. It can live in the soil for up to 18 months but would only get there if an infected animal had died there OR if an infected cat had defecated. Luckily, cats who are infected are only infectious for about 2-3 weeks, and most adult cats have already had it, so the chances are still fairly low. But because it poses such a huge problem if you do catch it, it is still definitely worth protecting yourself during pregnancy.
The first bit of good news is that once you’ve had it you’re immune for life and it is possible to be tested for it. In my first pregnancy, I wasn’t tested and didn’t even know you could be, but it turns out you can ask your midwife or GP to run a test for you if you garden a lot and you’re concerned. The test can tell you if you actively have it, but also if you have had it in the past and are now immune. If that result comes back, congratulations!! You can garden happily, safe in the comforting knowledge that cysts full of the little worms are snug and dormant, buried within your muscle and organs, protecting you for life.
I was convinced I had had it because:
I spent most of my time singing in France eating rare steak and vast quantities of salami
I have had cats and gardened since childhood
My London garden is a latrine for every cat in the neighbourhood
I never wore gardening gloves
I ate veg fresh from the garden
I was, therefore, a bit disappointed to discover that I haven’t had it, but I suppose that goes to show how rare it really is.
If you haven’t had it, gardening with good gloves and then washing your hands when you finish is the best thing you can do to protect yourself. Wash all your garden vegetables thoroughly (and shop-bought veg for the same reason). Some people suggest wearing a mask while gardening and perhaps in very dry weather if the soil is dusty that might be worth it…. I suspect in a British summer this isn’t really necessary.
So I am ploughing on through my last few weeks of pregnancy, and to be honest I can barely touch the ground anyway. I love gloves a lot of the time (e.g. slug collection) but there are moments where trying to protect myself from my own soil feels sad and disconnecting. Whilst other expectant mothers look forward to a martini, a rare steak and some opinionated cheese to follow, I am just looking forward to taking off my gardening gloves and putting my hands in the soil for the first time in 9 months.
