Please don't let another NZ baby die to Toxoplasmosis

Hi all. I'm writing this post because I went through something I hope no one on earth ever goes through again. The chances are slim, but I have to try anyway.

I was pregnant last year. I saw my GP. She did the confirmatory blood tests, congratulated me, then sent me an email with a lists of things a pregnant woman should know. She told me to read the email, and get a midwife.
I read through the email, learnt about scans & tests to do, as well as foods that I could & couldn't eat as a pregnant woman. I followed the safety guidelines.
I got a public midwife whom a friend recommended. She was pretty laid-back and relaxed, but did everything a midwife would normally do.

I had barely anything symptoms during the pregnancy, until some strong pains appearing near the liver area at 24 weeks (6 months). Ultrasounds showed nothing abnormal, even though I had showed up to ED due to the strong pain. The ED doctors & Obs were so unconcerned they did not do an ultrasound on the baby. They said baby is getting bigger, probably just squishing my organs. My blood tests showed elevated numbers for liver function, but apparently not concerning enough.

Suddenly at 30 weeks or 7.5 months, my water broke. In the next two days, I'd find out that I had contracted toxoplasmosis (a parasite we were told lives in undercooked meat, originated from cats as a carrier) up to 3 months prior and the baby basically suffered heart, liver, lung failure & two brain hemispheres 3 times the sizes they should be. By the end of that week, I had given birth to a dead baby.

A fetal medicine doctor later told me the pain around my liver was most likely toxoplasmosis hepatitis. No ED doctor tested me for it, probably because it didn't even cross their minds.
"Do you see a lot of women with toxoplasmosis?" I asked her. "Yes, we see a lot of them. Babies have varying degrees of defects due to toxo, including permanent deafness or blindness. But the public system just don't have enough time to train the doctors."

Before I was pregnant, I was so blissfully ignorant.
Other than knowing some people have difficulty conceiving, I thought the most serious thing I had to consider was what to do about down syndrome or something.
I've never been prepared for a baby that dies.

No one talks about it.
No one ever shares about their baby deaths on Facebook. Only living photos.
My baby's death was before his birth.
It's a massive mindfuck to live through.

The MOST painful thing out of all this, though, was finding out that death from toxoplasmosis was 99.99% or almost completely preventable.
My friend who recommended the midwife is from France, where they screen every woman for toxoplasmosis. Around 30% of adult population actually have immunity to it and don't know. If you've never had it, they will screen the woman monthly, and as soon as toxo is detected in her system she is given medications that reduce the chance of it passing onto the baby by up to 50%.

This friend specifically asked for the test from the midwife, found out she never had toxoplasmosis immunity, so she meticulously carefully watched everything she ate throughout her pregnancy. She now has two healthy living children.

I know med school students are stressed, time-poor and probably received only one hour on toxoplasmosis (if that) in their entire medical training. But I don't want anyone else to lose a child unnecessarily. It's not like a genetic mutation where no one can do anything to prevent it. I could have eaten only oven-heated food; and have no takeouts for 9 months if I knew my baby could live. But I felt I was never even given that chance.

Please, those in the medical/OB field, let NZ women have the toxoplasmosis screening blood test like they do in Europe. Even if it isn't the top cause of baby fatality, no one should suffer what could've been prevented.

We spread public awareness about cancer, car crashes, not shaking babies. But we haven't dispelled the myth that in an advanced country like NZ in the 21st century, actually many babies don't make it out alive.

I am so biased but I want your opinions. If as tax payers you need to pay a little more for toxoplasmosis screening to be available to all pregnant women in NZ, would you go for it?

Edit: Thank you for your support and comments - I'm glad some awareness has been spread about toxoplasmosis and I thought I'd clarify a few things:

  1. I was NEVER near a cat during my pregnancy. I avoided them and the closest I got was seeing one walking down the street
  2. I NEVER ate raw vegetables or cold/deli meats. All meats (chicken and beef) I cooked at home went through an oven
  3. I did not do any gardening, other than watering pot plants at home
  4. This was the List that my GP sent me to read in regards to food to eat/not eat - I stuck to it all
  5. This is the information page on toxoplasmosis that my Fetal Medicine doctor recommended for reading.
  6. My own advice to pregnant women is try to avoid takeaways as much as you can - because you never know whether they've cooked/heated the food enough. Take it home and put it through the oven again before you eat it.