For most people that suffer through frequent herpes outbreaks, the disease is, at most, inconvenient. It hinders your sexual freedom and if an outbreak occurs in a place that isn’t covered by daily clothing, it can be embarrassing trying to come up with reasons why you have a lesion or an open sore on your face, neck or hands. But for those that have herpes and are also pregnant, the health of their baby can be seriously compromised. If you are pregnant and you think you have herpes simplex two, you should tell your doctor immediately. Here are a few guidelines in dealing with a pregnancy vs genital herpes.

- Neonatal herpes can be a killer to your baby. Herpes is spread from mother to child, as the child is being born and traveling down the birth canal. If the mother is undergoing an outbreak during delivery, the chances of spreading it to your baby are much higher. There are many common anti-viral medications that can be prescribed during pregnancy that can keep the number of outbreaks down significantly, but since there is no cure, it is impossible to completely squash them.

- Studies have shown that about 50 percent of newborn babies that are treated with anti-viral medication once they contract herpes from the mother during birth end up with no damage at all. But for the rest, things like mental retardation, severe neurological disorders and even death can occur. If you are pregnant and uninfected and you know that your partner is, you need to be especially careful during this time since you can pass the virus on to the mother and the unborn baby.

- If you are a pregnant mother and you have had herpes for a long period of time, you might actually be better off. As part of the bodies natural defense against disease, antibodies, are created en masse by the body to fight infections. Your body can’t cure itself against herpes, but the antibodies that your body creates can cross to your unborn baby via the placenta and help strengthen your baby against infection during the time of birth. The longer you have had it, the better off you and your baby will be. The most at risk pregnancies are ones where the disease is contracted only a few months before birth.

- If your baby is born prematurely, he or she could be at a higher risk of contracting herpes during the birth since the baby hasn’t had enough time to absorb the antibodies for herpes from the mother. Combine that with the mother having an outbreak during the birth and it makes matters even worse.

- A small but significant number of babies actually contract herpes after they are born when someone who has it kisses them. Approximately eight percent of babies contract herpes this way.

Pregnancy vs Genital herpes is a very serious situation that you need to alert your doctor of right away. If you are pregnant, you need to be doubly careful that you do not contract herpes virus during your final months of pregnancy, or the worst may happen.

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By Jennifer Adams

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