Pregnancy And Baby Care
Pregnancy Complications
Prenatal Infection
Most Common Types of Prenatal Viral Infections
When you are pregnant, you spend all your energy in trying to ensure that your baby remains healthy and grows normally inside you. However, prenatal infections are more common than they are believed to be.
These prenatal infections not only threaten the health of the mother, whose immunity is low, but also the baby who is connected to the mother.
Common Prenatal Viral Infections
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Common Prenatal Viral Infections
Some of the commonest prenatal infections are those of the skin and the respiratory tract. However, these usually do not cause any harm to the fetus.
These infections only affect the mother and are seldom ever passed onto the baby. There are some infections though, which can be passed on to the fetus, damaging it significantly. Such a prenatal infection can cause miscarriages, per term deliveries and even still births. Therefore, it is important to be informed about such infections and take proper precautions to stay away from them.
Types of Prenatal Viral Infections
If you are pregnant and are active sexually, there are several sexually transmitted diseases that you should be wary of. Some of these sexually transmitted diseases that can affect your fetus at a later stage are:
- Chlamydial infections: this is a sexually transmitted infection that causes rupture of the membranes and a preterm labor. The newborn may be born with inflammation of the conjunctiva.
- Another one of the prenatal viral infections is gonorrhea. This infection too causes conjunctivitis in new born babies.
- Syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease, can be transmitted from the mother to the baby through the placenta.
This infection causes several birth defects in the baby, depending on the severity of the infection. - HIV is one of the most dangerous prenatal viral infections. The virus is transmitted from an HIV infected mother to the fetus through the placenta. Statistically, it has been found that one in four mothers who are infected with HIV pass the infection to the fetus.
- Herpes, caused by HPV, can also be transmitted to a baby from the mother. The risk of the transmission increases in a normal vaginal delivery. The herpes virus causes life threatening infections in the brain. This infection is known as herpes encephalitis. If the mother has developed herpes sores during the time of pregnancy, it is advised that the baby be delivered by cesarean section.
The most common prenatal infection which is not sexually transferred is rubella or German measles. This infection can cause birth defects, especially in the inner ear and the heart of the baby.
