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+--- Thread: Article Newborn dies after mother drinks raw milk during pregnancy (/thread-19725.html)
Newborn dies after mother drinks raw milk during pregnancy - C C - Feb 4, 2026
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/02/newborns-death-spurs-raw-milk-warning-in-new-mexico/
INTRO: A newborn baby has died in New Mexico from a Listeria infection that state health officials say was likely contracted from raw (unpasteurized) milk that the baby’s mother drank during pregnancy.
In a news release Tuesday, officials warned people not to consume any raw dairy, highlighting that it can be teeming with a variety of pathogens. Those germs are especially dangerous to pregnant women, as well as young children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems.
“Raw milk can contain numerous disease-causing germs, including Listeria, which is bacteria that can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm birth, or fatal infection in newborns, even if the mother is only mildly ill,” the New Mexico Department of Health said in the press release.
The health department noted that it could not definitively link the baby’s death to the raw milk the mother drank. But raw milk is notorious for transmitting Listeria monocytogenes bacterium. The Food and Drug Administration has a “Food Safety for Moms-to-Be” webpage about Listeria, in which it poses the question and answer: “How could I get listeriosis? You can get listeriosis by eating raw, unpasteurized milk and unpasteurized milk products… .” (MORE - details)
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In the deeper past, though, people had no choice but to drink unprocessed milk. And as a result, the population did largely seem to develop an immunity to the ecosystem living in it (compared to today, at least). In this area there are still people that sell and consume raw milk, without reported incidents. But such involves families that have been maintaining that practice for generations. When it comes to urban dwellers who already have diminished immune systems via their germ phobias -- of aggressively protecting their children from even playing in grass due to contact with dirt -- it's different story. There's no choice but to protect them, since their insulated lifestyles have diminished them (exaggeratedly) to a half-step short of being people who live in bubbles or spacesuits.