herpes & 34 wks pregnant

I am 34 weeks pregnant - i started taking acyclovair at 33 weeks 2 pills 2X a day - I started them early as i usually have my babies early - last two babies did not have herpes yet.  I am nervous about delivery - I want c - section but doctor says if she were me she would have vaginal but i am scared i will have viral shedding or something and make my baby sick - i have had this virus for two years in april.  anyone had vaginal births where everything was ok.

[gracefromHHP]

Congrats on it getting closer to the time of delivery for you :)

The dose of acyclovir for pregnancy is 400mg 3x/day.  Dr Gregor Reid did most of the research on herpes and suppressive therapy during pregnancy and that's the dose he recommends. You are naturally immunosuppressed during pregnancy and you need the larger dose.

Do you have hsv1 or hsv2 genitally?  Either way, no obvious lesion at the time of delivery and the risk of transmitting the virus to your baby during delivery is less than 1%.  Not a big risk at all.  Should you have an obvious lesion at the time of labor, a c section is recommended. No reason to have a c section just because of herpes though.

No, suppressive therapy during pregnancy will not affect the baby.  Some recent studies done to confirm this.

I personally didn't have vaginal births with my kids but I tried.  First one was a planned c section because I had ob's back to back my entire pregnancy ( they wouldn't let you take herpes antivirals back then ). I tried to have a vaginal delivery the 2nd baby but after a day in labor we figured out that she had other ideas about that so I ended up a 2nd c section. Most of my friends with genital herpes though have had vaginal births without any problems at all :)

Hang in there and keep asking questions as you have them :)

grace