Herpes And Pregnancy

Herpes and pregnancy can be a very dangerous combination, and every woman who is still of child bearing age needs to know about the problem and the risks involved.  I want to point out right up front that while the risk to a baby who contracts herpes through delivery to a mother experiencing and outbreak are very high, and can even be fatal, it is actually pretty rare.   This is not meant to be a scare article, but simply to present information that every potential mother needs to know about herpes and pregnancy.

It’s actually quite rare for a baby to contract herpes during childbirth (which is when the infection is most likely to occur for the fetus).  About one in four women in America suffer from herpes, but the number of babies infected during childbirth is way, way under one percent of all babies born.  But for those babies who do contract it, the consequences can be devastating.  If treated in time, the baby has a good chance of coming out of the experience relatively unscathed, with nothing more than a life long herpes infection to deal with.  That’s the best case scenario, and it’s usually what happens.

But in some cases of herpes and pregnancy, the baby’s infection doesn’t respond to the treatment, or the infection is not detected early enough.  In those cases, the infant can be left permanently mentally disabled, and in a few cases the baby will die from the infection.  Again, this isn’t meant to scare anyone, and such cases are really rare.  If you have herpes, the best way to keep your chances of passing it on to your baby low are getting the most effective treatment possible.  There is no cure for herpes, but the best treatments can reduce your outbreaks.  You don’t want to be having an outbreak during delivery.