HCV - Babies

IS it recommended to have babies for a person with HVC?

[nygirl7]

I don't know if it's recommended that would be up to your partner but you can have children if you have hepC - my x had hepC and I had two healthy children without hep even though I probably had it at the time and didn't know it.

[omg25]

Hi i have Hep c since i was 17years old..and at age 21 i had a beautiful healthy baby girl. At first her test were postive but at age 1 and a half she no longer had it. Doctor said that it was normal that at first they are positive then become negative. I breast feed and all. So i think its possible..

[Isobella]

I can answer only as a mother who passed HCV onto her daughter.  I did not know I had HCV at the time. Ifound out 19 years later.

I do not for one moment regret I had her.  And believe me, I have put alot of thought into it.  But I realize that not having had to make the choice, it is easier for me to look back and say that.  I have successfully tx'ed and she will as soon as the new drugs hit the market.

I am also studying to become a nurse, and we are now studying reproduction, and I can tell you that the baby has it's own blood supply. Google it and even the experts aren't sure how transmission occurs.

I don't know if my daughter got it during birth or during the times I had cracked nipples during the 13 months I nursed her.  But I am dame sure glad I have her.

We see a hepatologist at the Mayo clinic and he explained to me that sometimes when babies are born with it and do not clear, their immune systems don't learn to recogize the virus as an invader, therefore they don't set off the inflammatory response that causes the liver damage.  Whether this is true or not, I have not done the research because both she and I have minimal damage I was 1/0 and she is 1/1.So it seems to be true in my case.

My friend has dystonia, passed onto her from her mother, who inherited it from her father. Looking at them, I am reminded that there are things much worse than HCV and at least we have a chance for a cure.

Good luck to you.  I wish you the best.

Isobella

[Trish77]

There is approximately up to 5% chance of passing on Hep C to your child if you have Hep C when you get pregnant.

There is nothing you can do once you have already had children and you find out later that you likely had Hep C when they were born.  

So the real question is not if it's recommended - it's to do your research, see what the potential implications are for your child and then make your own decision.