03 Oct Hepatitis B and Pregnancy
What is Hepatitis B?
Hepatitis B is a liver infection that is caused by a virus and is spread through blood and body fluids from person to person. Most of the adults are able to fight with hepatitis B even without taking any treatment. However, in some cases it might not go away and can result in serious liver damage.
What extra risks are caused by hepatitis B during pregnancy?
If you are suffering from Hepatitis B during pregnancy then you can pass it on to your baby. Many women do not even get to know about the infection as sometimes it has no signs or symptoms.
How is hepatitis B virus infection spread?
The infection spreads by having direct contact with the blood or body fluid like semen, vaginal fluid of an infected person. A baby can take this infection during birth of the mother is infected by the virus. Hepatitis B does not spread by causal contact with people or objects and neither does it spreads through breastfeeding.
What is acute hepatitis B virus infection?
This infection is acute or chronic. Acute hepatitis B is when the infection is contacted initially. Symptoms may include the following:
- Tiredness
- Loss of appetite
- Vomiting
- Nausea
- Pain in stomach
- Pain in joints
The infection can clear up completely in a few weeks without treatment. Those who do get rid of the hepatitis B virus become immune to it. They cannot get the virus again.
Pregnant women with acute hepatitis B infection may have severe nausea, vomiting related to derangements in liver function and may show a tendency for miscarriage or premature labor.
How can you find that you are infected with hepatitis B virus?
All the pregnant women are tested for hepatitis B. Various blood tests are done for testing the infection. These tests can tell whether you are infected or not.
How does hepatitis B virus infection affect babies?
It’s most likely that hepatitis B will not affect your pregnancy and your baby’s birth. Sometimes however babies do get the infection (either during pregnancy or during child birth) and when babies become infected with Hepatitis B, they have a 90% chance of developing a lifelong, chronic infection. As many as 1 in 4 people with chronic Hepatitis B develop serious health problems. Hepatitis B can cause liver damage, liver disease, and liver cancer later on in life.
What if your test result of hepatitis B virus infection is positive?
If the results are positive then you might need to get few additional tests done
- check the functionality of the liver and
- check your overall health
- The risk of transmission of infection to the baby is evaluated.
Further management of pregnancy is then based on results of these.
Prevention of hepatitis B infection in the babies
All babies born to mothers with hepatitis B infection in pregnancy are offered immunoglobulin injection against hepatitis B virus and are also vaccinated with vaccine against hepatitis B. sometimes anti-viral medication is given to the pregnant woman in the last trimester of the pregnancy to prevent transmission of virus from mother to the foetus (unborn baby.)
For further information you can schedule an appointment with Triveni Obs and Gynae Clinic in Gurgaon and meet Dr. Manavita Mahajan. You can also contact us on +91-9810583876
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