Complications

Chicken Pox in Pregnancy

Chicken Pox is an acute infectious disease caused by the varicella virus, and characterized by fever, itchy and red spots on the chest and stomach, expanding in crops over the entire body. The spots turn into small blisters that dry up forming scabs over about a week's time causing scarring if scratched or if they become infected with bacteria.

In the United States , up to 95% of adults are immune, including those individuals who had Chicken Pox and never knew it. Furthermore, if you got the Chicken Pox vaccine, available in America since 1995, you are probably immune to this disease.

It may only be risky to be exposed to Chicken Pox under certain circumstances while you are pregnant, but usually immunity remains lifelong, particularly if you have had Chicken Pox before or even without your knowledge, so there is nothing to worry about.

Some pregnant women have particular concerns about this disease, more likely as a result of stress, anxiety or another distresses. However, by means of a simple blood test, any woman may have the certainty of immunity. Those women, who have never had Chicken Pox and catch it during pregnancy, have a chance to get sick and affect the baby.

Depending on timing, harm to the baby can be stopped before it occurs. If you are diagnosed with Chicken Pox during the first 20 weeks of gestation, there is a very slight risk that your baby will get the congenital varicella syndrome, an extremely rare disorder in which affected babies have abnormalities at birth due to the mother's infection.

Affected babies may have a low birth weight, with localized abnormalities of the skin; hands, arms, legs, and feet, the brain, eyes and, in a very few rare cases, other areas of the body. The severity of associated symptoms and physical findings vary greatly from case to case depending upon the maternal infection, which occurred during fetal development.

A detailed ultrasound at 18 to 20 weeks can reveal signs of defects or other problems a baby is suffering when the mother has contracted Chicken Pox, and later a treatment can be followed-up by a sonogram to see how the baby is doing until birth. If you caught Chicken Pox during pregnancy, do not be shy to meet with a genetic counselor to discuss the risks and decide how to proceed.

Chicken pox in the second half of pregnancy and more than five days before delivery have no major issues to the baby, but if Chicken Pox occurs 5 to 21 days before your due date, the baby might develop chicken pox days after birth.