Can infections affect pregnancy

During pregnancy , some common infections like the common cold or a skin infection do not usually cause serious problems. But other infections can be dangerous to you, your baby, or both. Some infections may lead to preterm birth and low birth weight babies.

Others can cause serious illness, birth defects , and lifelong disabilities, such as hearing loss or learning problems. If you do get an infection during pregnancy, contact your health care provider about how best to protect you and your baby. Only some medicines are safe during pregnancy. The information on this site should not be used as a substitute for professional medical care or advice. Contact a health care provider if you have questions about your health.

But giving antibiotics during labor can prevent the spread of GBS, so it's important to get tested for the infection during pregnancy. Learn more about GBS and pregnancy. Pregnant women who get infected with genital herpes late in pregnancy have a high risk of infecting their fetus. The risk of infection is particularly high during delivery. Infection with the herpes virus during pregnancy or at the time of delivery can lead to brain damage, blindness, and damage to other organs.

Rarely, herpes infection during pregnancy can lead to serious complications in the mother, including severe liver damage and possibly death.

If a pregnant woman has had genital herpes in the past, there are medications that she can take to reduce the chance that she will have an outbreak, which also reduces the risk to her fetus.

If a woman has active herpes sores when she goes into labor, the infant can be delivered by cesarean section to reduce the chance that the infant will come in contact with the virus. The likelihood of transmission depends on when during pregnancy the mother was infected. If the mother gets the infection later in her pregnancy, the risk that the virus will infect her fetus is quite high.

If the infection occurs early in pregnancy, the risk of the virus infecting the fetus is much lower. In infants, HBV can be serious and can lead to chronic liver disease or liver cancer later in life. In addition, infected newborns have a very high risk of becoming carriers of HBV and can spread the infection to others.

In some cases, if a woman is exposed to HBV during pregnancy, she may be treated with a special antibody to reduce the likelihood that she will get the infection. All healthy infants should be vaccinated against HBV to give them lifelong protection. Infants born to women with evidence of ongoing HBV infection HBV surface antigen positive should also receive hepatitis B hyperimmune globulin as soon as possible after birth. HIV can be passed from mother to infant during pregnancy before birth, at the time of delivery, or after birth during breastfeeding.

Listeria or listeriosis pronounced li-steer-ee-OH-sis is a serious infection usually caused by eating food contaminated with a particular type of bacteria. Infection during pregnancy can lead to pregnancy loss , stillbirth , preterm birth , or life-threatening infection of the newborn. Listeriosis is most often associated with eating soft cheeses and raw milk, but recent outbreaks have been associated with fresh and frozen produce.

Prevention recommendations include checking food labels to avoid eating unpasteurized cheese made from raw milk and other actions. Learn more about preventing listeria during pregnancy.

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