Pregnancy & chicken pox. Is this email being over cautious?

[GretchenFetchem]

My boss has just told me that his daughters school have a student with chicken pox. As a standard precaution they've emailed the parents and said 'if you have any pregnant women in your family inform them and ask them to seek advice from their antenatal care provider'. As I see him every day at work he thought he should tell me.

If it helps to know, he has had chicken pox but his daughter hasn't. I also had it as a child and am currently 28 weeks pregnant.

Do I really need to contact my midwife or is it all just cautionary? When they say family do they mean people you see regularly and come into close contact with? I don't go around hugging my boss or anything

Thanks in advance

I don't think I'd worry about it unless your boss's child gets chicken pox. And even then I'd think the risk to you would be minimal. But if you have a midwife appointment coming up I don't suppose it would hurt to mention it.

There was a minor chicken pox outbreak in DS1's class when I was pregnant with DS3. I did seek advice from my midwife then, as I knew both DS1 and DS2 had been playing with one of the poxy children the day before spots appeared. Midwife arranged for blood tests to check my immunity to chicken pox, and they showed I was immune, so no further need for me to worry.

It was very considerate of him. My told me they only get concerned if you are nearly due but might be worth a call to check if you are worried.

I would double check with your midwife anyway; it's a small risk but a risk nonetheless.

If you've had it as a child you are likely to be fine. My son had it whilst I was pregnant and because I'd already had it in childhood they weren't concerned. Also your boss would have to come down with it before you'd have to be concerned about being exposed.

If you've had it already you should be immune and therefore it's not an issue. If your boss breaks out in spots then you could contact your midwife and see if they'll test your immunity (it was a standard test at Booking in my first pregnancy I think but they've stopped doing it now IIRC) but otherwise I wouldn't worry at all.

You and your boss have both had it, you are currently 4 steps removed from the CP sufferer and 2 of those 4 have had it already - I don't think you have anything to worry about here!

My baby and dd had it whist I was pregnant and gp said im probably annume. And if not there was not much they could do but that would be very unlikely. And we just deal with it if I was to catch it.

I would get my immunity checked, having had it as a child is no guarantee as a friend unfortunately found out.

diamondsandpears my boss really is lovely and very considerate. I thanked him for letting me know. He seemed worried so I played down my concern to him. Didn't want to panic him!

Thanks everyone for your advice. To err in the side of caution I might give my midwife a ring, as I won't be seeing her for a month. I only saw her last Friday!

I am 23 weeks pregnant 12 of the children in my daughters class have had cp in the last few weeks. As I have had chicken pox i wouldn't have mentioned it to the midwife and I go in to the classroom every day.

There is nothing they need to do unless you catch it and need treatment.

I don't plan to request an appointment or anything like that with my midwife. Just to have a quick word over the phone and put it to rest. I'm not overly worried because I'm physically so far removed from the problem I don't see it ever getting to me.

Also, I know having had chicken pox before doesn't guarantee immunity unfortunately. I had it twice as a child, which I could have sworn I typed in my original message but it seems I missed the crucial word 'twice'. Was in too much of a rush it seems!

The same virus that causes chicken pox also causes shingles so even if you've had it before you are still at risk.

you can't catch shingles from someone with chicken pox. anyone who has previously had chicken pox can catch shingles as it's caused by the dormant cp virus in your system.(you can catch chicken pox from someone with shingles though if you are not immune from chicke pox)

you can get chicken pox more than once but this is quite rare. they can check to see if you have immunity from chicken pox if absolutely necessary.

as PP have pointed you are so far removed from the virus and have had it yourself it's highly unlikely you would catch it as a result of this outbreak.

my DD had chicken pox before Xmas when I was around 20 weeks pg. i have had Chicken pox before. obv sought advice from Dr as was in direct contact with someone with illness - even then they were not concerned about it. Personally I wouldn't even think of mentioning your scenario to your midwife but if you are at all concerned then there's no harm mentioning it.

It is very rare but you CAN get chicken pox twice. My doctor told me she has had it 3 times! but then she is in a lot more contact with it, but I cancelled a holiday when I was 14 weeks pregnant as the friend i was staying told me she her son had chickenpox the day before we were supposed to fly out. I didn;t think it was worth the risk.

My nephew developed chicken pox over the Christmas holidays. They surfaced on Boxing Day after having spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with him and the rest of the family. We have a GP in this family, who immediately called me to check whether I'd had chicken pox before. When I confirmed I had, he said there shouldn't be a problem, but to speak to my midwife to have my immunity levels checked. I called triage (as it was still the holidays), and they checked using previous bloods they'd taken; I was still immune. Call your midwife and just have your immunity levels checked if you're in the slightest concerned.

My DS had chickenpox whilst I was pregnant and I wasn't 100% sure I had had it in childhood so the GP sent my bloods to be checked for immunity. If I had been confident I had caught it before they wouldn't have tested.

In the event of a non-immune pregnant woman being exposed to the virus their are anti-virals they can give you which reduce the risk of you catching it.

Whilst CP in pregnancy can have serious consequences in most cases it won't (I know someone who had CP when pregnant - she and baby are fine).

In the OP's case she is so far removed from the case of CP and is very likely to be immune having had it (twice!) before, so the risk is incredibly low.