Having children and Hepatitis B

Hi Everich,

First of all, welcome to the forum. I hope you find what you’re looking for here. I have moved your question to a separate topic because I think it’s an important question that should be easily searchable by anyone thinking the same thing (it is a common situation!).

To answer your question simply, yes it is possible to have children when the mother has a HBV infection without infecting the child or partner!

There are several things you can do to make sure everyone stays safe:

Vaccination: You should be vaccinated against HBV and confirm that your antibody levels are high enough to prevent infection. Also, the new-born should vaccinated against HBV straight away (within 24 hours of birth), followed by 2 follow-up doses after 6 weeks and 4 months (Australia also recommends another at 6 months). This is 90% effective in preventing infection of the new-born.

Antiviral treatment: The mother can also take antiviral treatment (e.g. Tenofovir) while pregnany before giving birth. The virus does not cross into the womb; instead infection only happens during the birth procedure. Antivirals will lower the amount of virus in the mother’s blood to prevent the baby from being exposed to a lot of the virus. Antivirals will also limit the exposure of the partner to the virus.

Antibody therapy: The new-born can also be given antibody therapy (also known as HBIG). This is given within 24 hours of birth and helps the baby’s immune system to neutralise any virus from the mother.

I hope this helps. Happy to answer any more questions. Perhaps some other @HealthExperts can chime in with any additional things I might have missed?

Cheers,
Thomas

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