snake care during pregnancy (of owner)

[MoJo]

The reason that pregnant women are told not to clean cat boxes is because cats can carry an infection called toxoplasmosis that can be devastating for a fetus if the mother gets it while pregnant.

Pregnant women's immune systems are not as robust as when they are not pregnant so if you did get sick while pregnant you might get more ill than when you were not pregnant. I think you can continue to clean the snakes cage as long as you are careful about washing your hands well and not touching your face. Wearing gloves will not help if you put your hands to your face or brush your hair out of it! Salmonella is the most likely infectious disease that you could get from your snake and it is passed via the "fecal oral route". This means it is passed from contaminated feces that is ingested.

Hand washing is the most important thing that you can do. This means lathering up your hands and rubbing them well with soap and water while you sing "Happy Birthday" twice and then rinse well! A quick wash or rinse will not do. You should also not touch the fawcetts after you wash your hands but turn them off with a paper towel!

I think this is more than most of us do but it is the proper way to wash your hands.

[ephemerata]

This means lathering up your hands and rubbing them well with soap and water while you sing "Happy Birthday" twice and then rinse well!.

I love it! I think handwashing suddenly became more fun...
And BTW I'm well aware of toxoplasmosis and staying away from the cat litterbox. I delegated that chore away right off the bat!

I'm thankful to have a specialized forum like this. It's strange that Doctors don't even ask about 'less common' pets: birds, snakes, etc. when running through the 'don't do this anymore' list. But I guess most people don't have a small zoo like me.
THANKS AGAIN