Effects of rubella during pregnancy

Will rubella affect an unborn baby? Can exposure to rubella during pregnancy cause a miscarriage? Does exercising during pregnancy harm the fetus? How to manage rubella infection during pregnancy?

What are the effects of rubella during pregnancy?

Congenital rubella can have very serious implications for an unborn baby. Women should make sure they are protected from rubella before they get pregnant. Infection with rubella virus causes the most severe damage when the mother is infected early in pregnancy , especially in the first weeks (first trimester).

If you contract rubella in your first or second trimester, you may pass it to your baby. Rubella during pregnancy can cause problems. Learn about rubella and pregnancy. If a pregnant woman gets rubella during the first weeks of pregnancy , she usually passes the disease on to her unborn baby (fetus).

The baby will have congenital rubella.

If the fetus gets rubella during the first weeks of pregnancy , the baby will likely be born with many life-long problems. Catching rubella during the first five months of pregnancy is extremely dangerous for the unborn baby. In approximately of cases in which the woman contracts rubella during pregnancy , the fetus will become sick. The earlier that the unborn baby is exposed to rubella , the more severely she is likely to be affected. During the first trimester, the risk is close to percent.

Infection between the 13th and 16th week of pregnancy leads to congenital rubella syndrome in around percent of babies. The risk drops to percent later in the second trimester, and third-trimester infections rarely lead to congenital birth defects. Fortunately, rubella in pregnancy is now a rare problem in Canada because most women have been vaccinated against it.

The vaccine prevents most – but not all–rubella infections during pregnancy. If a pregnant woman is not immune to rubella and catches it during the first months of pregnancy, she usually passes the disease on to her fetus. If a woman gets rubella during pregnancy , the virus can pass to the baby and cause certain birth defects. This is called congenital rubella syndrome (CRS).

A baby is more likely to be affected by CRS if the mother gets rubella during the first trimester of pregnancy , although infection any time in pregnancy carries a chance of CRS. Respiratory side effects have included sore throat, cough, and rhinitis. Infection during pregnancy can cause miscarriage, or birth defects like deafness, blindness, intellectual disability, heart defects, and liver or spleen damage.

If you are not up to date on MMR vaccine, but you are already pregnant, consult your healthcare provider about ways to reduce your risk of exposure to rubella.

In some cases, rubella infection can also be responsible for miscarriage or stillbirth. So rubella is a mild illness that can nevertheless have serious consequences if the infection is contracted during pregnancy. Can I be vaccinated against rubella during pregnancy ? The highest risk to the fetus is during the first trimester, but exposure later in pregnancy also is dangerous. The rubella vaccine is usually given as a combined measles-mumps- rubella inoculation, which contains the safest and most effective form of each vaccine. The findings, presented recently at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics in Orlando, Florida, raise doubts about the need to consider abortion because of exposure to the vaccine in early pregnancy.

If you are pregnant and come into contact with someone with (or suspected of having) rubella , you should take steps to check your rubella status. What to Expect When You’re Expecting, 5th Edition. Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel. Depending on the gestational period when the mother contracts rubella , an infant born with CRS may be unaffected by the virus or it may have severe developmental defects.

Abnormalities suggestive of congenital rubella syndrome were not observed during a 10-year survey of 7pregnant women who received rubella vaccine within months before or after conception.