Parent and Baby

During pregnancy, you want to be at your optimum health but you can not protect yourself from every  illness and one of them is chicken pox. Chicken pox is caused by the virus called varicella zoster. It is a very contagious disease and it can definitely affect your unborn baby.

Chicken pox is characterized by small reddish spots that look like blisters that ranges in size. The rashes are very itchy but you should not scratch them or else it will scar. At first, the rash looks like pinkish dots that quickly develop a small blister on top. After about 24 to 48 hours, the fluid in the blisters gets cloudy and the blisters begin to crust over. It usually takes 10-14 days for all the blisters to be scabbed over and then you are no longer contagious. If you have chicken pox, you will also have fever, runny nose or stomach ache and a feeling of not really well.

Those who have been infected by chicken pox once before are already immune. If you have not been infected yet, then you are at risk of contacting the disease. Therefore, avoid being in contact with persons who have chicken pox. If you are not sure if you are immune, you  can ask your doctor to do a blood test to see if you have chicken pox antibodies. If test reveals that you do have the antibodies, then you are immune. If you have not had chicken pox before, you may receive the shot of zoster immune globulin (ZIG) if you are pregnant and come in contact with someone who has chicken pox. ZIG must be given with 4 days of first exposure. This is only given if you do not already have the antibodies against chicken pox. You can also get the vaccine but you have to wait at least 3 months before trying to conceive.

If you are pregnant and you do not have the chicken pox antibodies and you have contacted the disease, the gestational age of your baby will be the guide as to the risk of birth defects your baby will have. If it occurs within the first trimester, the birth defects risk is .5 to 1 %. If it happens during the 13th to 20th week, the risk is 2%. If you have chicken pox 5 days or less before delivery or 1 to 2 days after delivery, then there is a 20 to 25 % chance that your baby will be infected. If you have chicken pox 6 to 12 days before delivery, there is till a chance that your baby will be infected but there is also a chance that your baby will receive some of your newly made chicken pox antibodies, which will cause the congenital varicella to be mild. The birth defects due to chicken pox are scars, eye problems, poor growth, small head size, delayed development and retardation.