Chicken pox - danger in early pregnancy??? or to newborns

[lulumama]

i know answer will be in archives , but would like to know quickly !!

DD has the pox ! and we have been in contact with a heavily pregnant friend / and new born ie one day old baby, and a friend who is 10 weeks pregnant....

i want to tell them dd has chicken pox, but don;t want to panic either of them

????

she came out in spots about 48 hours ago

Probably your friends will want to know, would be annoyed if you didn't suggest they look out for it.
The risks in both situations are very low, but they might want to be vigilant so they know what it is early on, if they do get it.

this might help

thanks, that was my thought really. that they should know, but i don;t want either of them to panic, i want to know that i can reassure them.. esp my pregnant friend, as she is pregnant after a miscarriage

I'd tell them. DS got chicken pox within a few hours of birth and was very seriously ill (SCBU for 5 days).

The incubation period is on average two weeks, which means that it can be brewing this long before even showing itself, and a person is infectious (can transmit chickenpox to another person) from two days before the rash appears until after the vesicles crust over.

thanks misty

that bit is reassuring, as i did not see my heavily pregnant friend/ newborn since about 10 days ago

saw my other friend last week, on thursday, so she would b e more likely , to be at risk of cathcing it

will call them both and tell them

i am absolutely going to tell tehm muffin, just don;t wnat to tell them, and then they both panic!

At 10 weeks a very slight chance of congenital varicella syndrome, if the mother is not immune (unlikely scenario - 90% of pg women are).

In newborns, again if mother is not immune, risk (I think 25% or so?) of neonatal chickenpox, which can be dangerous, but immunoglobulin and aciclovir can help reduce the risks - so it is important for her to know.

I know a fair bit about this because of a blood test I had in late pg with ds showing me to be non-immune, although I have had chicken pox. I have just had it repeated (38 weeks pg) and this time it shows definite immunity.

Only a problem to the pregnant women if they are not immune to chicken pox (ie if they haven't had it) If not then they can request immunoglobulin from their GP which should prevent it being transmitted to the baby if they've caught it.

AFAIK the newborn should be protected through antibodies from the placenta/breastmilk. However if the mother isn't immune then I don't know. There is a vaccine of course but probably not licensed for newborns.

I heard about a baby who got it as a newborn (first morning home from hospital anyway, toddler sibling came out in spots). So 2 wks old the tiny baby had it, but it was actually quite mild.

Still, the mother will want to know what to look out for, because it can be serious in a few cases.

thanks

my pregnant friend definitely had chicken pox, my other friend not in, so left her a message

I think you have the info you need Lulumama, but if it helps, we were visited by toddler when ds1 was tiny who came out in spots a few days later - ds1 didn't catch it. ds1 then caught it when ds2 was about 3 weeks old and ds2 didn't catch it either.