Pet Care Articles - PET_HEALTH

Cats and Human Pregnancy
by Isabella Rosetti

I'm writing this section on pregnancy and cats from a point of view of a mother that has a daughter of 14 months old and who hopefully will bring some personal experience to this worry!

Before the birth of my daughter I was particularly concerned at how my cats would react to this new noisy bundle of joy that was soon to take up so much of my time. I was pleasantly surprised at how well our cats adapted. I did some preparation before hand as I was advised that this would help smooth things along a bit.

Firstly, some Doctors advise to get rid of your cat due to the risk of Toxoplasmosis being passed on and causing birth defects. This is not necessary! Toxoplasmosis is a parasite that can be passed on to your cat through either eating prey or from just the garden soil. You could also contract this by just gardening (through soil) so do wear gloves and wash your hands afterwards . It is apparently rare in indoor cats but still be diligent. So while you are pregnant get your partner or a family member to clean the litter box, which my husband kindly did! If this isn't possible wear disposable gloves and make sure you wash your hands straight away and thoroughly after each clean. Toxoplasmosis can also be passed on through eating raw meat, in fact this is the most common way humans get it. So it comes down to basic food hygiene in the kitchen, wash all boards that are used for chopping meat (if you eat meat that is!) and don't prepare foods like salads on the same boards. Obviously wash your hands thoroughly, I found a bacterial wash put my mind at rest. This routine was easily established.

 I didn't want to shock my cats too much when the baby came home. I knew that they could get stressed if a predictable routine is changed suddenly. So I started leaving baby things around the house so they could get used to their smell gradually and did actually watch a few baby programs so this integrated the new baby sound they would later become so accustomed to! I started wearing the baby lotions I would be using and encourage the cats to smell me, even give them treats so they would end up having a positive association to the items or smells. Let your cats get their curiosity out of the way by letting them in the nursery before baby arrives. Some people I've heard have brought their friends children round kept at a distance and this has also helped them get prepared, maybe left on the parents knee or in a play pen so the cats are not grabbed or chased.

My biggest worry was that the cats would sit on my baby and suffocate her. At first we did let them in our room at night when our daughter was in the crib. This however didn't work as one of our cats just thought it was too cosy! He never went in there when my daughter was asleep but I would sometimes find him curled up during the day which worried me. You can buy cot cat-nets (from main baby shops) which fit on to the top of a crib or Moses basket. Unfortunately our cot was a funny shape so this wasn't an option for us. In the end we shut the door at night until she was old enough to go into her own room. We were advised that at six months there was a lesser risk of cot death. This actually worked well, we were expecting our kitties to meow at our door, night after night, but they settled down really quickly. I felt better and we could all sleep more soundly. We found the longer the cats had to get used to the idea before baby came home the better we all felt.

When we brought our daughter home, they smelt her briefly and went to get some food! After settling in, the cats were all well behaved and found comfort in the fact that they still had food at the same time, were groomed and played with, and that the baby didn't actually effect them too much. Im sure this helped them feel unthreatened. Sometimes at this stage its often a lot of help getting friends or family round until you are more at ease with what has to be done. After all, our kitties are all valued members of the family and looking back brought us many happy memories as they slowly got to know our new baby.

My daughter has grown up to love cats, giggles whenever our tabby enters the room, and she strokes the older black cat. She insists on carrying a cuddly cat toy where ever she goes. We are thinking of adding to our family again and this time round I have a better understanding and am more secure in the fact that cats know and love their family, even the noisy ones! And they are adaptable to change when given the love and support they deserve.

Do you have a helpful story or some information that might be useful to cat lovers? Please drop a line to isabellarosetti @ hotmail.com (please remove spaces).