Chicken Pox and Pregnancy

[pickle]

I'm pregnant and my sons nursery has chicken pox.  I had this as a child.  Will it be a danger to me or my baby now?

[Chillum]

I caught chicken pox when my wife was pregnant and was taken into hospital. As my wife was unsure whether or not she'd ever had it, the hospital would not let her see me until blood tests had been done on her. When the results revealed that she had had it as a child, she was then allowed to see me. Presumably this means that you should be ok, but maybe give your local surgery a call, just to err on the side of caution.

[Gevs]

Instead of asking people over the internet ask your GP. Would you seriously take the advice of someone that you don't know and presumably is not qualified enough to answer you when it comes to the health of you or your baby.

 

If you are then you are pretty stupid

[PunkDaddy]

A very similar thing has happened to my wife she is 4 months pregnant and has had contact with chicken pox recently. Go to the doctor anyway. the doctor told my wife if she had already had it she everything would be fine, but as she was unsure she had blood tests done. Apparently even is she hasn't had it the chance of the unborn child getting it is 0.4%. Go to the GP anyway, you don't want to take the chance.

[Hgrove]

You "should" have immunity if you have already had it, but as the others suggest, the only sure thing is to speak to your gp;  it should be possible to do a blood test to see if you are immune.  Also, as you already have a child, it is possible that you have come into contact with the virus through your child, even though your child has not actually had it, thereby boosting your immunity. However, this is what I think:  lots of people, both adults and children, could be carrying the virus, either because they don't care and go out of the house anyway, or simply because they don't realise they have it (in the initial stages). Lots of pregnant women go out of the house.  Yet there isn't (so far as I know) an epidemic of chickenpox ill effects in babies.  Hence I think the risks, leading a normal life, must be modest. 

[Corkyb]

Firstly I think the comments made by Gevs were uncalled for and totally insensitive.

 

When I was pregnant with my younger son, the eldest one caught chicken pox from his sister. He had it badly but I was fine as I'd had it in childhood. If anything it boosted my immune system and my younger son didn't get chicken pox until he was 7 despite having contact with it on a number of occasions.

My mother caught chicken pox while she was expecting my younger sister. My sister is now in her early 40's and is perfectly healthy.

 

Have a chat with your Doctor just to be sure though, but I would think that everything will be fine.

[crisgal]

i had chicken pox when pregnant. I was only 10 weeks pregnant and my gp was very concerned - bit scary for a while but everything was ok - healthy baby boy.

What annoyed me is that every midwife tells you something different. A few said that the baby would be immune to chicken pox and yet he got a very bad dose of it when he was five!

I work in a pre-school and when i was expecting my third child a few of the children attending had chicken pox and so i rang the surgery to check. The gp said that as i had already had it there was no problem. Good Luck!