The March of Dimes recommends that all women of childbearing age take a multivitamin every day and eat a healthy diet to ensure that they get the recommended daily 400 micrograms of folic acid to help prevent birth defects of the brain and spinal cord. To help prevent these infections, a pregnant woman should be sure her meat, poultry and fish are thoroughly cooked. They often are especially severe in pregnant women. Occasion-ally, an infected pregnant woman can pass the infection on to her newborn, who can develop diarrhea, fever and, rarely, meningitis. A pregnant woman also should avoid other common causes of Salmonella including unpasteurized milk and milk products, raw or lightly cooked eggs, and alfalfa sprouts.
Toxoplasmosis often causes no symptoms or only mild flu-like symptoms.
However, if a pregnant woman contracts it, there's about a 40 percent chance she will pass it on to her fetus. Some infected babies develop vision and hearing loss, mental retarda-tion, seizures and other problems. When toxoplasmosis is diagnosed during pregnancy, antibiotic treatment often is used to help reduce the severity of symptoms in the newborn. Another common cause of toxo-plasmosis is contact with cat feces. A pregnant woman always should have someone else empty the cat's litter box.