While we know that cats and babies can coexist harmoniously in the same family, there are still precautions that new or expecting parents can take to protect both baby and cat. Keep your cats indoors and don’t befriend your neighbor’s cats while you’re pregnant! The parasitic infection of cats, toxoplasmosis, can be caused by the cat eating small mammals or birds.

This parasite in a pregnant woman can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, or birth defects such as blindness, deafness, hydrocephalus, or epilepsy.
Toxoplasmosis cysts are excreted in the faeces of infected animals. Because cats often use gardens as litter boxes, always wear gloves when gardening. Also wear gloves when washing raw fruits and vegetables, handling raw meat, or cleaning food preparation surfaces, and do not rub your eyes until you have washed your hands. It is also best not to eat or feed your cat raw or undercooked meat. To prevent infection of cysts that are passed in the faeces, scoop up the faeces at least twice a day.

Some cats do not tolerate change well. These are the cats most likely to be affected by the new baby, so use the entire pregnancy to slowly prepare them. Play recordings of baby sounds to get your cat accustomed to the new sounds she’s about to hear, or rub your hands with baby lotion before getting busy. with a cat something pleasant to create positive associations with children’s smells. Arrange the nursery furniture as soon as possible and give your cat a few weeks of inspection before you pick off-limits surfaces like the changing table and crib. Then, at least a month before the baby is born, make the surfaces inhospitable. Cut sheets of cardboard to fit the surface of the furniture and tape one side with double-sided tape/tape.

Cats tend to avoid sticky surfaces and should learn to stay away from those areas by the end of the month. If the tray was stored in a future nursery, start moving it a few inches a day to a new location a few months in advance. If the transition is made too quickly, your cat may return to the ground in its old place. Covering this area with a hard object, such as a diaper bucket or chest of drawers, may scare him away.