If you’re pregnant, you may wonder how a diagnosis of this contagious disease may affect your growing baby. Common questions include: Will my baby have the disease? Is it safe for me to be pregnant? How can I prevent transmitting the virus? Your concerns are only natural, given that hepatitis C can advance and cause liver damage, liver failure, and liver cancer, according to the Mayo Clinic. Spreading the virus to your baby may put them at risk for these complications, too. RELATED: What Happens to Your Health When You Aren’t Treated for Hepatitis C Here’s what you need to know about the hepatitis C virus if you’re pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant.
Will a Hepatitis C Infection Pass to an Unborn Baby?
Because hepatitis C can spread between sexual partners, it seems logical that the virus would spread from mother to unborn child. But can it? There’s good news and bad news. The bad is that, yes, the virus can pass to a baby during pregnancy, and there’s no way to guarantee your baby won’t get it, according to the Canadian Pediatric Society (CPS). The good news is that transmission by pregnancy is unlikely, says Amesh A. Adalja, MD, a board-certified infectious disease physician based in Pittsburgh and a senior scholar with Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. According to research published in September 2014 in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society, there’s an 8 to 15 percent risk of a mother transmitting hepatitis C to her infant. Pregnant women with a coinfection of hepatitis C (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are at a higher risk of transmitting hepatitis C to their babies, says Dr. Adalja. In fact, the aforementioned research suggests the risk of transmission with this coinfection is fourfold higher than in those women with only hepatitis C. You can reduce your baby’s risk of infection by treating the HIV, notes the CPS. RELATED: How Do You Get Tested for Hepatitis C?
Is Treatment for Hepatitis C Possible While Pregnant?
Antiviral medication is the standard treatment for a hepatitis C infection, and it’s highly effective. It cures about 90 percent of people with the virus, notes the CDC. If you learn about a hepatitis C diagnosis while you’re pregnant, you may feel that starting treatment right away will lower the risk of your baby being infected with the virus. But treating hepatitis C during pregnancy isn’t recommended, says Adalja. Typically, treatment won’t start until after your baby is born, according to the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). Because medications used to treat hepatitis C may be harmful to a fetus, your doctor may also suggest using contraception during treatment, and for at least four months after completing treatment, according to the NHS. RELATED: Dos and Don’ts for Treating Hepatitis C
Can an Unborn Baby Be Tested for Hepatitis C?
While prenatal testing for hepatitis C isn’t customary, once your child is born, he or she will need to be tested for the virus, says Adalja. “Testing is recommended at 18 months for a child born to a mother with hepatitis C, although there is some debate about testing earlier using tests that look for the genetic material of the virus,” he continues. Some babies can be tested as early as 2 months old, but testing at this age isn’t entirely accurate, according to the CPS. That’s because anti-HCV antibodies (a protein the body makes when HCV is in the bloodstream) can pass across the placenta from mother to fetus, which early testing may detect. But the presence of these antibodies doesn’t always mean that a baby has been infected. These antibodies can persist in the baby for the first 12 to 18 months of life, according to the aforementioned research in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society. Research published in November 2017 in the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine journal cites other research evaluating the presence and decline of anti-HCV antibodies in 235 uninfected infants. Among the studied infants, 96.8 percent had antibodies at birth, 15.3 percent did at age 12 months, 1.6 percent at age 18 months, and 1.0 percent at age 24 months. Learning your child has hepatitis C can be scary. But the good news is that about 1 in 5 children diagnosed clear the virus on their own for reasons not yet understood. Others become carriers. If your child is a carrier, there’s a chance that they’ll never have symptoms or need medication. Yet they will need periodic blood tests to check their viral load and liver health. And if need be, they’ll start medication, explains the CPS. RELATED: 7 Myths About Hepatitis C
Is There a Way to Protect Your Unborn Baby?
Currently, there isn’t a vaccine or medication to protect an unborn baby from getting hepatitis C. The best thing you can do is know your own hepatitis C status and get treated before conceiving, says Adalja. And if you’re coinfected with both the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C, it is important to control HIV, not only to prevent HIV transmission but to prevent hepatitis C transmission, he says. Also, if you decide to become pregnant, speak with your doctor and know the risks. “Hepatitis C during pregnancy is more likely to cause cholestasis of pregnancy, in which bile acids accumulate and lead to itching and sometimes adverse fetal outcomes. And if you have HCV and cirrhosis, complications like low birth weight, preterm delivery, and fetal malformations are likely to occur,” warns Adalja. It’s important to note that it is possible to safely breastfeed with hepatitis C. Researchers don’t believe that the virus spreads through milk. As a precaution, though, don’t breastfeed if your nipples are cracked or bleeding, according to the AASLD. RELATED: How Hepatitis C Is Transmitted
A Final Word on Hepatitis C and Pregnancy
Hepatitis C is a serious infection that could pass to an unborn child, but this transmission is unlikely. The best way to protect your baby is to seek treatment before getting pregnant. Treatment not only can cure the disease, it can provide peace of mind and protect your unborn child from infection.
