Toxoplasmosis is acquired from cat poop.Sadly, my husband had built a huge kennel for breeding. He had already been kept in a small one. We only had a few cats. Thank the heavens. He got to do the cleaning..except for two weeks when he had guard duty! I was expecting then! Our son was born with Spina Bifida. Something I shared when I was riddled with questions, as they were trying hard to figure out what was causing the number one birth defect back then. I let them know I had changed kitty boxes. They were interested. I remember one of the questions was, do you have a microwave?. We did. Now this has become change of subject. Long story short. I became a participant in a 5 year study for finding out what they thought was going on. I was to send them a blood sample ...to Washington State..they were the ones doing the testing...and they would send me prenatal vitamins. I was to take the prenatal vitamins for three months before we even tried to get pregnant. Then they kept sending me the vitamins throughout the pregnancy..it took me three months to get pregnant after the three month waiting..so six months of taking prenatal vitamins before getting pregnant. Had a son that was fine.
5 years end. You all may know the results of all that testing now. Eat those leafy greens the second you think you want to get pregnant..and start taking those prenatal vitamins. The lack of folic acid is the number one reason for spinal abnormalities. These start during the first three months .. first trimester of pregnancy. The spinal cord does not..zip up all the way. Can stop closing completely anywhere in the spine. The starting point for closing is interesting. It starts in the middle! Then works out both ways...up and down. My son's opening is at L5. Pretty low. No, it was not because I had changed kitty litter. But I stopped to think how I had been eating for years.
. There is a small factor of Genetics in there. But we had never had this in the family anywhere that we knew of. Whew. Longer and unexpected post!
