Persons who have genital herpes, or women negative for the herpes virus but who has a partner with a herpes infection need to take preventive care and give thought to the risk of child bearing.

Infants exposed to Herpes Simplex can experience mental retardation, seizures, brain infection (encephalitis) prolonged hospitalization and death.

While the consequences can be severe, the risk can be much limited by careful planning and care by you obstetrician knowledgeable about Herpes Simplex.

While the effects of an infection is severe when it occurs, the incident of newborns acquiring a herpes infection is extremely small. Less than 0.05% (1 in 2000) deliveries where the mother is infected with the HSV will result in a transmission to the newborn.

The most high risk incident is when a non-infected mother become infected for the first time while she is pregnant. If the infection occurs in the last trimester, the infection rate to the baby is approximately 30-50%.

A mother to be, with a partner who is infected, need to carefully consider the options, and risks. Discuss with your medical care provider before having sexual relations of any form.  Condoms, a traditional protector of sexually transmitted diseases, is not effective to reduce the spread of herpes due to the large variety of where the lesions occur.

A mother to be, who has a previous herpes infection will be spreading the antibodies to the unborn baby, giving the baby what is termed, "passive immunity".

A mother to be, who is recently infected do not yet have antibodies and in addition, a primary infection will have increased shedding of the virus, both of the amount of virus, and the duration.

In the majority of cases, the transmission occurs during delivery. Opting for a cesarian section may be advisable.  While a Birth Defect of Genital Herpes is possible, much can be done to reduce, or almost eliminate the risk to the baby.