why NOT to drink raw milk: my story

I decided that it's time for me to bring my own experience to the table of the raw milk drinking "fad" that seems to be sweeping through crunchy mama land. 

I made a poor choice of making a comment on a friend's Facebook page about her choice to drink raw milk. I sent her an email and I've modified what I sent her below and I wanted to share it with all of you, since this is my blog, and this is a more appropriate place to share my views on matters such as these. I haven't heard back from her yet... I hope I haven't run her off for good! 

I preface this by saying that I am and always have been a proponent of a natural approach to all things - from health, to childbirth, to growing my own food organically, and beyond. You can dig through my blog to find my views on these matters. The benefits of consumption of raw milk, however, do not outweigh the risks. This is simply because the risks are VERY serious, very much life-threatening. 

Here I am, in the ER,  21 weeks pregnant, receiving my second IV bag of fluids, on day five of horrific cramping, diarrhea, and dehydration.

I contracted campylobacter jejuni from raw milk.

....and I was THIS pregnant.

I was just like, perhaps, many of you, a devotee (you can look back on my blog from 2008 and 2009) to the consumption of raw milk - I preached its benefits to everyone who would listen. I touted that I'd researched the facts, etc and knew what I was doing. 

And then I got sick. Very sick. I had consumed several glasses of milk when eating a PB and J one day. Within two days I was experiencing severe abdominal cramping, profuse and bloody diarrhea and could not keep hydrated. I initially thought I was miscarrying when the cramping started. I was pregnant with Noah and I did knot realize it, but his life and my own were at risk at this point. 

The bottom line is, the risk exists, and out of however many people you may know who drink it, one of them got sick, and I am that one. You are informed about the risks on the label, but it's easy to ignore. Especially if you've been drinking it for a long time. Especially if you think the "system" is trying to regulate and keep yet another healthy and natural product out of reach. And the system DOES do these things, however, I am here to tell you, maybe, just maybe sometimes it's for good reason. 

The Infectious Diseases office that interviewed me informed me after the results got back to them that there had been a regional outbreak of campylobacter jejuni in a community of Hispanic women making cheese from raw milk in Northwest GA (the same area where the farm that I got my milk from is located - AND the same farm that everyone I know gets their milk from). Within this community, there were FOUR - yes, FOUR pregnant women who lost their babies - apparently a characteristic of campylobacter infections in pregnant women. Also, whether or not I had consumed raw milk was the LAST question they asked me in my interview - and the interview was 10-15 minutes long - so I do not feel that office was trying to find raw milk drinkers and incriminate the farms. I had been drinking it for well over a year. 

Let me just say that I am not on a mission here, except that I know a lot of people who are in the raw milk bubble right now - they think it's totally fine, totally healthy and that the benefits outweigh the risks ... it's like this "fad" or "trend" in the "crunchy mamas" world. I am sort of trying to bring some reality to the table. And to be honest, I am one of those people who were caught up in that same bubble. And then it burst at the risk of my life and my unborn child's life. 

The thing is, you will not hear about cases unless you really do your research, contact the Division of Health Infectious Diseases office and ask for the data... the data is collected by hospitals and doctors and passed on to them. You will never hear about it from the farms because they (the farms) don't sell it for human consumption. They are totally NOT liable for any human infections, because there is that loop hole in the law - they aren't selling it to you for you to drink, they are selling it to you for your pets to drink... so all these infections, unless treated by a doctor and exposed, are lost in the grey area between the farm being accountable for their practices that led to the infection, and the person who got sick... NO ONE is accountable, and that is a VERY BIG loophole where people's lives and health float in the balance. 

You can get the milk, do a soft pasteurization of it and minimize your risk. Yes, culturing the milk probably is better than drinking it straight. At the end of the day, a lot of people will consume raw milk, and not EVER get sick. And that's great! But if you do, it is a very serious bacterial infection that could at its worst be life threatening, and is of even greater risk to young children and pregnant women. 

I feel compelled to share my story, and there are others I know of who have also gotten sick who have no voice, because of the lack of accountability, due to the farms sort of kind of breaking the law by selling the milk to humans, knowing they will consume it, but leaning on the loophole to make their money. 

Please don't be mad at me! :) Just hear me out, and make your decision. I won't judge you for it, but I won't be quiet about disagreeing with you. 

Just go find yourself a local dairy who pasteurizes their organic milk from happy, grass fed Jersey cows, and I promise, you won't notice the difference! 

I love y'all.

Brooke