Can I have a baby if I have liver disease?

Having a child is a lifelong experience for every woman, but some people may experience infertility problems. Some women are unable to get pregnant due to physical illness. Pregnancy is a woman’s right, but it is very sad for a woman if she cannot get pregnant. If this continues for a long time, it will lead to family disharmony, so timely treatment is necessary. Liver disease is something that women may develop, but is it possible to have children if you have liver disease?

1. Transmission routes of hepatitis B

1. Blood transmission: Broken skin or wounds come into contact with blood or blood products containing hepatitis B virus, such as medical staff being stabbed by a needle carrying hepatitis B virus, or receiving blood or blood products containing hepatitis B virus.

2. Sexually transmitted hepatitis B virus is distributed in the patient's body fluids and can be transmitted through unsafe sex with a hepatitis B virus carrier.

3. Mother-to-child transmission: If the mother is a hepatitis B virus carrier, she can pass the virus to the next generation.

2. Mechanism of mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B

1. Transmission through the placenta during pregnancy. Factors such as threatened premature birth can cause rupture of the placental microvessels, leading to maternal blood entering the fetal blood circulation and causing fetal infection.

2. Transmission during delivery. The vast majority of infections occur through this route. During childbirth, the baby swallows maternal blood, amniotic fluid, or vaginal secretions containing HBV while passing through the birth canal. Or during childbirth, the placental villi rupture during uterine contractions, causing a small amount of maternal blood to seep into the fetal blood circulation.

3. Transmitted after delivery. Contact with mother’s body fluids and breastfeeding, etc.

3. Early detection and early treatment of "pregnancy liver disease"

Compared with non-pregnant hepatitis patients in the same period, the incidence rate in pregnant women is several times higher. This is because there is potential damage to the liver during pregnancy, and the damage to the liver increases as the pregnancy progresses. If medical blocking measures are not taken in time, adverse pregnancy reactions such as fetal infection, malformation and even miscarriage will occur. Once it develops into severe hepatitis, the mortality rate can be as high as 80%-90%.

Therefore, women of childbearing age should enhance their awareness of self-protection. First of all, women of childbearing age should undergo physical examinations before marriage and pregnancy to find out whether they are infected with the hepatitis virus and whether their liver function is normal. Pregnant women should take liver function and hepatitis virus marker tests as routine examinations. If there are any abnormal conditions, you should consult a specialist or receive treatment in time before becoming pregnant.

Secondly, when the liver function of pregnant women fluctuates, they will experience nausea, vomiting, fatigue or yellow urine, which are similar to the reactions of pregnancy. Do not be careless and should seek medical attention as soon as possible to find out the cause.

Furthermore, once liver disease is discovered during pregnancy, it should be taken seriously and treated as a high-risk pregnant woman. If necessary, hospitalization for diagnosis and treatment is required, especially in late pregnancy, when liver disease is relatively severe and can easily develop into pregnancy complicated with severe liver disease, which may endanger the lives of mother and child.

4. Preventing mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B

Newborns born to HBsAg-positive mothers should be injected with hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIG) as soon as possible within 24 hours after birth, preferably within 12 hours after birth, and even better within 6 hours. The dose should be 100 IU. At the same time, 10 ug of recombinant yeast or 20 ug of Chinese hamster oocyte (CHO) hepatitis B vaccine should be inoculated at different sites to significantly improve the effect of blocking mother-to-child transmission. The second and third doses of hepatitis B vaccine should be administered at intervals of 1 and 6 months respectively. After the birth of the newborn, the combined immunization of hepatitis B vaccine and immunoglobulin (i.e. a combination of active and passive immunization) can be effective in blocking mother-to-child transmission as high as 95% to 97%.

5. Can mothers with hepatitis B breastfeed?

Studies have shown that whether a baby is breastfed has no direct relationship with the mother's HBV infection. Mothers who are carriers of the hepatitis B virus can breastfeed as long as they vaccinate their newborns with hepatitis B vaccine and immunoglobulin in a timely manner according to the 0-1-6 procedure.

Although breast milk contains hepatitis B virus, there is no evidence that breastfeeding can cause the child to be infected. However, if the mother is positive for both HBsAg and HBeAg, breastfeeding should be avoided as much as possible, and necessary mother-child isolation is required to avoid increasing the chance of infection in the newborn. Because mothers who are double positive for HBsAg and HBeAg usually have a higher amount of hepatitis B virus in their bodies, if they breastfeed, when the child develops oral ulcers or the mother's nipples are damaged, the hepatitis B virus can enter the child's body and increase the newborn's chance of infection.

It can be seen from this that women infected with hepatitis B can give birth to healthy babies as long as they take protective measures.