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My doctor told me to avoid it

I avoided it I love lox!

I ate it a few times!

I eat sushi (my midwife has a similar sensible approach) but i have been avoiding lox. I read something that made me feel avoiding lox was more important than avoiding sushi... wish I could remember what- the baby ate my brain. Oh and the smoking would not kill the bacteria.

I finally caved in to my love for smoked salmon about 1/2 way through the pregnancy. I will still get a smoked salmon crepe or smoked salmon quiche once in awhile but I always tell them I'm pregnant and make sure they cook it really hot and thoroughly. I know my GF was adamant about all the smoked salmon being cooked "steaming hot". I've yet to try it cold still since it was on the no-no list.

I remember reading the shelf stable kind was OK, but the refrigerated kind wasn't. OR, it could have been vice versa! I don't like lox so I didn't pay that much attention, but there was something like that...

I avoided it in the first pregnancy (sadly... one of my favorite foods!!). I ate it a few times the second pregnancy. Also sushi from places I trusted.

I feel like for things like that, the risks aren't worth it. Sure, it could be a one in a million chance something happens but with my luck I'll be that one in the million, and is lox really worth it (and I love love love lox!). But no, not worth worth it, so I stayed away from it. My mom brought me lox the day I got home from the hospital though

I've had it twice this week, including for breakfast this morning.

@jaclyn: Funny that you mention this, as I read that same recommendation on the NHS site and almost mentioned it in my reply as well.

It brought to mind some larger cultural differences that I see in terms of how pregnancy is treated in the US vs. other Western countries. I'm in Canada and we are closer to the British example than the American. I would say that most Canadian woman have never heard of/aren't told by their doctors/midwives to avoid 90% of the things that American women are told to avoid. I would imagine the case is very similar in the UK and other northern European countries where pregnancy is less medicalized (e.g. midwives are primary care providers in many of those countries; women don't see an OB unless they are high-risk).

I'm not here to make a values judgment or to say one system is necessarily better or worse. It is an interesting observation I've made during my pregnancy though. I'm not sure what exactly is at the core of it (socialized medicine vs. private insurance? Liability/the more litigious nature of American society? And, I'm sure, a whole host of other factors).

Mine didn't but I'm in Mexico, so I think it's just something the doc wouldn't think to contraindicate since it's not that common here. He did mention avoiding canned foods and pork products though, which I don't think is standard in the US, but does make sense for the local population (and are things I avoid anyway).