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Hepatitis B - Management
What advice should I give women with hepatitis B who are pregnant or breastfeeding?
- Advise women who are infectious (that is, they are positive for hepatitis B e-antigen [HBeAg]) that there is an increased rate of miscarriage and premature labour. In almost all cases, the baby will become a chronic carrier (unless the infant is immunized).
- Advise pregnant women (and those wishing to become pregnant) who have chronic hepatitis B about the risk of transmission to the baby, and the preventative measures that should be taken (such as vaccination).
- It is the role of the Health Protection Unit to work with the primary care trust and maternity unit to inform the general practitioner of the results of screening, and to agree arrangements for counselling, vaccination, contact tracing, and retesting of the baby at 12 months.
- Advise women with chronic hepatitis B that they can breastfeed their baby — providing the infant has been immunized against hepatitis B.
- An information sheet, How to protect your baby, is available from www.dh.gov.uk (pdf).
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