Prevention of jaundice during pregnancy

There are a lot of women who fear suffering from jaundice while they are pregnant but there are not that many cases of it due to the fact that it is not a pretty common health condition. However, the reason why women fear it is because it can cause certain consequences for both the mother and the baby.

Causes

There are not that many causes of jaundice during pregnancy but the most common are pre-eclampsia associated with HELLP syndrome, acute fatty liver of pregnancy, hyperemesis gravidarum and intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy. However, the most common of all the causes of jaundice in pregnancy with infections is hepatitis. Hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, hepatitis D and hepatitis E viruses are all known to cause this health disorder. Jaundice in pregnancy caused by hepatitis does not occur at the same rate all over the world. Women should know that the chances of suffering from jaundice caused by hepatitis infections are much higher in developing countries and the chances are between 3 and 20%. In some countries the chances are even higher. On the other hand, women in developed countries have only 0.1% chance of suffering from hepatitis caused jaundice in pregnancy.

Hepatitis A

In case of hepatitis A, women who are infected by it need to be isolated from the other patients in order for the infection not to spread. The treatment will include the maintenance of proper hydration and nutrition. If the woman is pregnant and exposed to the virus, she will be given immune globulin within the 14 days of exposure. The experts are still unsure whether the virus can pass from the mother to the baby but if the illness occurred in the final month of the pregnancy, the neonate will also receive immune globulin.

Hepatitis B

Out of all the causes of acute viral hepatitis in pregnancy, this is the most common. People need to know that it can occur in three forms and these are acute, subclinical and chronic. In case of hepatitis B, there is a huge chance that the neonate will get infected as well. In case when the mother is infected with this virus, the infant should receive hepatitis B immune globulin at birth and hepatitis B vaccine at one week, one month and six months old.

Symptomatic gallstone disease

Women should also know that symptomatic gallstone disease is the second most common abdominal emergency that pregnant women may face. According to the data, 6% of all women are affected by it.