Can a Pregnant Woman Give Hepatitis C to Her Baby?
The possibility of transmission must be considered when a woman with hepatitis C is deciding whether to have children. For infants who have received the hepatitis C virus from their mother, brief elevations of liver enzymes may occur, but no chronic liver disease has been reported. There have been no reports of cirrhosis in newborns, infants or child due to mother-to-child hepatitis C infection. It is recommended that all babies born to mothers with hepatitis C virus be tested annually until age three with antibody blood tests. Women with both AIDS and hepatitis C are at high risk for transmitting the virus to their babies, and research has shown that these women consistently transmit the virus to their babies at birth.
