On my very first midwife visit I was given a list of what to avoid & I avoided it all (already was before I got there). You kind of do that when you've already had 3 unexplained losses - all too early for the medical profession to bother investigating. By the time I went to that visit I'd seen a number of GP's & two OB's & they'd all verbally given me a list of what to avoid.... they all had slightly different list. The midwife's one was the most thorough and informative.

What I learnt from that leaflet is that many people get listeria & don't know they have it. Why is that? Because usually it's like you have a cold or flu - most people seem to think you'd have symptoms like you've got gastro but that only happens sometimes. You'd only know you had it from a specialised BT.

I also learnt it could lay dormant for up to 70 days in your system before it caused issues so that listeria borne food that you ate 2 months ago which you thought was OK cos you didn't get the runs could still be sitting there when you give birth. Likely result for bubs - stillbirth.

Anyways, yes I'm sure they do eat those things in those countries but I reckon they also have higher levels of stillbirth caused by listeria. It would probably be almost impossible to compare statistics but I reckon that's what the result would be. A lot of earlier losses could be caused by it too, but as the great majority of losses don't get investigated we will never know the exact figures.

The danger was only discovered in the 80's. That's why our mothers and grandmothers scoff at those of us who avoid such foods.

I constantly get shocked by women who think the risk of listeria has lessened after the first tri. Wrong. Probably far more dangerous in the third tri cos if you do have listeria in your system when bub is on it's way out (and remember that you may not know you have it) the result could be dire.

It's not easy avoiding the list of risky foods but it can be done. I'm sure it's far easier to deal with avoiding a few foods than it is to deal with a late loss cos of listeria.