Most families already have a pet in the house long before a baby ever enters the picture, and the good news is that pets and babies coexist just fine in the vast majority of homes. There are a few real, well documented risks worth knowing about though, along with quite a few old myths that have stuck around far longer than they deserve. Here's what's actually worth paying attention to.
Thinking about adding a pet
If you don't have a pet yet and you're weighing whether to get one now or wait, there's a reasonable case for waiting until your child is a bit older, often cited as around age three, before bringing home a dog or cat. By then your child can help with feeding, learn to treat the animal gently, and actually enjoy the relationship rather than just being present for it. There's also a more practical reason. A new puppy or kitten needs a lot of hands on care, and that's a tall order on top of a newborn's schedule. Plenty of families do both at once successfully, this is just something worth thinking through rather than a hard rule.
Rabies and wildlife
According to the CDC, more than 90 percent of animal rabies cases in the US happen in wildlife rather than pets, mainly raccoons, skunks, bats, and foxes. Bats in particular are behind most human rabies deaths in the country, so avoid handling one even if it looks sick or stunned. Don't feed or pet wild animals, and wash your hands after touching anything outdoors that might have been in contact with one, like firewood that's been sitting in a wooded area.
If your own pet spends time outside, check him for ticks regularly. Ticks can carry Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. If you find one attached, grasp it close to the skin with fine tipped tweezers and pull straight up with steady pressure, rather than twisting it or trying to burn it off.
Toxoplasmosis and the litter box
This is the one piece of pet related advice that's actually specific to pregnancy, and it's worth understanding correctly rather than just following the shorthand version. Toxoplasmosis is caused by a parasite that can turn up in cat feces, especially if your cat spends time outdoors or hunts birds and rodents. If you're infected with it for the first time while pregnant, it can be passed to your baby, and depending on when that happens, it can affect the eyes, brain, or nervous system.
A few things about how this actually spreads are worth clearing up, since a lot of the advice floating around gets the mechanism wrong. You get toxoplasmosis by accidentally swallowing the parasite, not by breathing it in. That happens through contact with contaminated cat litter, contaminated soil, or undercooked meat, then touching your mouth before washing your hands. It is not something that becomes airborne and it can't be inhaled, so the goal with the litter box isn't to avoid breathing near it, it's to avoid the parasite reaching your hands or food at all.
Timing matters here too. The parasite in cat feces isn't infectious right away, it takes one to five days after being passed to become able to infect someone, which is exactly why cleaning the litter box daily works as a prevention strategy. And if you've had toxoplasmosis at any point before you got pregnant, you're already immune and your baby isn't at risk from it. A blood test can tell you whether you've been exposed in the past.
Infection is also more common than a lot of people realize even without symptoms. The CDC estimates that around 11 percent of the US population age six and up has been infected with toxoplasmosis at some point, most without ever knowing it, since the symptoms usually amount to nothing more than a mild fever, sore throat, or swollen glands that gets mistaken for a cold. The risk to a baby depends heavily on timing. Infection later in pregnancy is more likely to actually pass to the baby, but infection earlier in pregnancy, especially the first trimester, tends to cause more serious problems when it does. Some babies show signs at birth and some look perfectly healthy at first with issues, often eye related, showing up months or years later, which is why a baby exposed in the womb is typically monitored and treated rather than just checked once and cleared.
The prevention list is short and manageable. Have someone else handle the litter box if you can. If that's not an option, clean it every day, wear disposable gloves, and wash your hands well afterward. Keep your cat indoors and feed him commercial food or well cooked meat rather than letting him hunt, since that's how cats pick up the parasite in the first place. Wear gloves when gardening, since outdoor soil can carry the same risk, and wash your hands afterward. Rinse fresh produce thoroughly before eating it. And skip raw or undercooked meat entirely while you're pregnant, particularly pork and lamb, washing your hands, cutting boards, and knives well after handling any raw meat.
Scratches and bites
Even a well behaved pet can scratch or bite if it's startled or feels cornered, so it's worth teaching kids early what a pet's warning signs look like, from quietly moving away to an outright hiss or growl. If a scratch happens, clean it right away with soap and water, apply an antibiotic ointment, and call a doctor if a fever, tiredness, headache, or a swollen lump shows up at the site one to two weeks later. That combination can point to cat scratch disease, which sounds alarming but is usually a mild illness similar to the symptoms just described. Since it spreads through a cat's claws and saliva, it's worth keeping cats from licking a baby's face or any open scratch, not just from scratching in the first place.
Cat bites deserve a bit more caution than they usually get. A cat's teeth are thin and sharp enough to drive bacteria deep into a wound while leaving very little visible damage on the surface, which is part of why cat bites get infected more often than dog bites do. One often cited study found that a third of people bitten on the hand by a cat needed hospitalization. Any bite that breaks the skin is worth having looked at by a doctor the same day, since an infection that gets a head start in a deep puncture wound can spread quickly.
If you're worried about a cat scratching a baby, declawing isn't the fix it was once thought to be. It's been banned for non medical reasons in a growing number of states, and most veterinarians now steer families toward training a cat to use a scratching post instead, since it solves the same problem without the recovery and behavior issues declawing can bring.
Getting your pet ready for the baby
Pets tend to notice pretty quickly that something in the household has changed once a baby arrives, and a little preparation ahead of time goes a long way toward an easy transition. Start adjusting your pet's routine gradually in the months before your due date rather than all at once. If your dog is used to a long daily walk, ease that down to something more realistic for your first few sleep deprived weeks, and consider lining up a dog walker or a neighbor to help fill the gap. Keep feeding the same food you always have, since a new baby's arrival is not the moment for a diet change on top of everything else.
Set up the nursery and any new furniture ahead of time so your pet has a chance to adjust to the changed space before a baby is also in the mix. Decide on the ground rules for the nursery in advance too. A pet shouldn't be left alone in a room with a newborn, not because of the old myth about cats "stealing a baby's breath", which isn't real, but because any curious animal lying too close to a sleeping infant's face is a real suffocation risk. Let your pet into the nursery when you're right there to supervise, and keep the door closed the rest of the time.
When the day comes, it can help to bring home something with the baby's scent on it before the baby herself arrives, the hospital cap they send newborns home in works well, and let your pet sniff it. Once you're home, let your pet see and sniff the baby while you're holding her securely, and don't leave the two alone together, ever, no matter how calm your pet has always been. From there, look for small ways to keep your pet feeling included instead of replaced, some quiet time together during a feeding, a turn helping (once your child is old enough) to hand out treats, and the same affection your pet has always gotten from you. Most pets settle into the new routine within a few weeks. A little planning up front just makes that adjustment easier on everyone.
Food safety during pregnancy comes up again outside of the litter box too, our pregnancy and nutrition guide covers undercooked meat and a few other things worth being careful with at the table. And if you're watching for anything else out of the ordinary as your pregnancy moves along, our signs and symptoms guide covers what's typical and what's worth a call to your doctor.