Mums with genital herpes

[Pinkgirl1986]

Hi
I was diagnosed with herpes and my first initial outbreak a couple of months after having my baby. Well I'm severely traumatised and worry that I've passed herpes to him all the time.
I'm scared to take him swimming because I feel he'll be close to me.
Can any mums with GH especially HSV2 or dads please just shed some light and tell me how ok it is?! My baby is 10 months old now. I just want to feel normal and this doesn't help my PNA.
So do you do everything normal? I wash my hands that much they crack! I fear transmission all the time
Do you do normal things like.. kiss your baby? Lay your baby on your bed? Sit your baby on your legs when swimming? Bathe with your baby? Etc
TIA X

I don’t have herpes but I do work in sexual health. Please don’t worry about doing these normal everyday things with your baby. There is absolutely no way - short of sexual contact - that you can transmit herpes to another person.

Have you been prescribed antivirals? These should keep the infection at bay, even if you do have a flare up. Many people never have another flare up after that initial really bad one. But even if you did, short of someone putting their mouth or genitals on the lesion, you can’t give it to someone else.

So it’s fine to do all the normal things anyone does with a baby: bathing, changing, co sleeping, etc.

The most important thing though is to take care of your own health and any anxiety you may be feeling. Postnatal anxiety is really common and if this is really stressing you out, I would talk to your gp or health visitor. You don’t need to tell them about the herpes if you don’t want to (your sexual health records are separate from your gp records anyway). But do talk about how anxious you are feeling.

I don’t but I’m 39 and was brought up by a parent with herpes (don’t know the strain, but genital and on mouth too).

I have never had any symptoms or outbreaks. My parent was very careful about kissing me (& my siblings) during an outbreak on the lips and careful about sharing flannels and towels.

I think that’s about it though - we shared baths, went swimming together, cuddled, kissed when no sores visible. They had medication during an outbreak.

I think it’s only natural to worry but I think you and your baby will be absolutely fine