is chickenpox danerous when you're pregnant?

i'm currently settling my 2 year old into nursery and his teacher told me that chickenpox was going round the nursery. i know liam's better off catching it young as it tends to be worse the later you catch it but can it affect my pregnancy if i become exposed to it?

[evthing4reason]

you need to go to your Dr and ask him to check to see if you are immune to it or not. Even if you had chikenpox before doesn't neccesarily mean you have full immunity to it. If you do, then its fine, if not, yes there is risk to the pregnnacy. I have had chickenpox before but when we did preconception blood work we found out i didn't have enough antibodies and had to get vaccianted

[worriedbabe]

thanks i'll call my dr. monday morning, don't wanna risk anything. i have had it before but i'll definitely check whether i'm immune or not.

[sweetangel7]

YES!  
And I agree with evthng4reason....I had chicken pox (badly) as a child and I do NOT carry the immunity...they tested my blood twice because I was fairly insistent after the first test that I had to be immune because I remember having such a bad case.  The ob office said that if I came in contact with it, they wouldn't even SEE me!  Because I could be carrying it around infecting all the other pregnant ladies and causing them complications.  They wont vaccinate you when you are pregnant, so I'll have to get vaccinated after birth.