Childbirth with Herpes - Neonatal Herpes

I am scared to death of transmitting my genital herpes on to my infant. Is it best to have a C-Section or is it ok to have the baby vaginally during delivery? Is herpes transmitted through blood? Is it ok to donate blood and have herpes? Is herpes genetic, meaning can it be passed on through my DNA?

Answer: I found this website and information the best at describing the risks involved with a woman having herpes.

What to consider when a Women is affected by Herpes

Having herpes does not mean that you will not be able to have children. In fact, women with genital herpes can experience a safe pregnancy and normal vaginal childbirth.

Herpes is not a genetic condition and so cannot be passed on from parent to child in this way. Herpes is also not spread through blood, semen or vaginal fluids, instead, the virus is spread by direct contact.

If a woman is having an outbreak during labor and delivery and there are herpes lesions in or near the birth canal, the doctor will do a cesarean section to protect the baby. Most women with genital herpes, however, do not have signs of active infection with the virus during this time and can have a normal delivery.

If a woman has primary herpes (her first ever encounter with the virus) at any point in the pregnancy, there is the possibility of the virus crossing the placenta and infecting the baby in the uterus (about 5% of cases). This transmission of the virus to the fetus causes neonatal herpes, a potentially fatal condition. Mothers who acquire genital herpes in the last few weeks of pregnancy are at the highest risk of transmitting the virus.

However, women with a history of genital herpes before becoming pregnant have a very low risk of transmitting the virus to their baby. This is because of antibodies circulating in the mother's blood, these antibodies should protect the baby during pregnancy.

Herpes is not a genetic condition and so cannot be passed on from parent to child in this way. Herpes is also not spread through blood, semen or vaginal fluids, instead the virus is spread by direct contact.

Women with a history of genital herpes before becoming pregnant have a low risk of transmitting the virus to their baby. This is because of antibodies circulating in the mother's blood - these antibodies should protect the baby during pregnancy.

If a woman has primary herpes (her first encounter with the virus) at any point in the pregnancy there is the possibility of the virus crossing the placenta and infecting the baby in the uterus (about 5% of cases). This transmission of the virus to the fetus causes neonatal herpes, a potentially fatal condition. Mothers who acquire genital herpes in the last few weeks of pregnancy are at the highest risk of transmitting the virus.

When a male partner has genital herpes and the woman has no evidence of infection, you may need to consider:

Should you have herpes present in the birth canal near the time of delivery, a caesarean section might be necessary to protect the newborn from coming into direct contact with the virus.

Babies can also contract herpes from being kissed by someone with a cold sore (5-8%). A young child cannot fight off infections as easily as an adult can, so serious health problems can occur. If you suffer from cold sores take every precaution not to put an infant child at risk.

Can Herpes be transmitted during pregnancy and can the herpes virus be passed onto an infant?

Infants can become infected with the herpes virus. If you have ever been exposed to herpes talk with your doctor before planning a pregnancy, even if you have never had symptoms or have not experienced a recurrence in a long time.

You will need to contact your health care professional for more information about pregnancy with herpes, and to obtain appropriate tests and follow-up care for the pregnancy.

If you are interested in talking to other mothers with HSV you may like to visit the Discussion Forum. It is a good place to go for encouragement and support.

Source:

Should Therapists Specialize in Herpes

I believe that physchologists, therapists, psychotherapists, marriage counselors, priests, chaplains and anyone else dealing with human relationships should be required to know about herpes and how it affects people both physically, mentally and emotionally. In many cases, it can tend to wreak havoc on couples and individuals both emotionally and as far as the trust factor goes. It would also be beneficial if general practicioners, gynocologists and whoever people go to for their diagnosis should also recommend that newly diagnosed patients go and talk to a therapist or to find someone who they can talk to and relate with.

So I'm putting a call out to any and all therapists. If you offer genuine support for people who are living with genital herpes, please add your comments to this post. Many times people aren't ready to meet a group of people, but might be willing or interested in just talking one on one to a therapist.

Dear Dr. Sue Johannsen

Dr. Johannsen really rubs many of us in the herpes community the wrong way and a friend of mine wrote her an email a few months ago and has given me permission to repost it here.

Kerry says: Who knows if they'll forward it to her. I believe I went easy on her because I don't think she realizes how she's not living in reality on the issue of std's. Here's what Kerry said:

"Sue, I really enjoy watching your show. I like how you are frank and real and tell it like it is. But when you answered a question the other night, it really upset me.

I don't remember the woman's name, but she called with a legitimate beef about her husband cheating on her with a 20-something who claims to be a "carrier" for hpv. She asked if that was warts. You made the face you always do when people bring up an std and said, yes, it is warts.

Sue, with all the added information out there on tv commercials and the push for more awareness of this very common problem, do you think maybe the next time someone asks about hpv you could also add that most people have had an hpv infection of one strain or the other at some point in their lives and not known it?

I have never in my life had a wart. But I had cell changes in my cervix that were precancerous and tested positive for one of the high-risk strains of hpv. After three years of constant vigilance I don't test positive anymore for hpv, but I'm fully aware that it could resurface at any time. I'm no different than millions of women out there and I think they need to be informed of that instead of stigmatized by the letters HPV.

Not to mention that you informed the viewer that if her husband had no symptoms for a month, he would be free and clear and Sue, that's not the case. Men are walking all over the place with hpv infections, never know it, and spread it to women. For certain strains, there are no symptoms for men. And the only tests for hpv are the Pap smear and DNA hpv test and they're not suitable for testing males.

I imagine the ridiculously high number of high-risk hpv infections could be the reason that they're developing a vaccine. Here are some links.

http://womens-health.jwatch.org/cgi/content/full/2003/108/1

http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/results/cervical-cancer-vaccine1102

As wonderful as condoms are for preventing transmission of most std's, they really don't fully protect from hpv either.

Sue, I just had to write and ask you to please, for the sake of the young ones who haven't exposed themselves yet to sex or for women who don't go for regular Paps and think hpv is an "eww gross" std that won't happen to them, could you be a little more careful about the way you deal with those calls?

I'm not a nurse or a doctor, but I've unfortunately had to deal with this issue after having been in a monogamous relationship for years, and I know how awful knowing I could develop cervical cancer in the future is and I don't want women to be so stigmatized by the word hpv that they don't do something about it.

Even if you could update your website's information about it, you could help combat this problem.

Once again, I really like your show and have a great time watching it when I can. I mean no disrespect here, but I wanted to give you some feedback into what I think was a dropped ball issue.

Thank you for taking the time to write to Dr. Sue Johannsen Kerry. I always hope that she'll respond with a 'not so negative' come back. She always does that little "ewwwwwww" that she does and I really wish she'd stop. She's only helping to keep up the negative stigma on issues which I don't feel warrant such negativity. They're viruses and as long as people aren't afraid to 'tell' a mate, and if the mate is willing to take the risk, then what difference does it make!! Oh, the ignorance in our society simply baffles me sometimes.