Women are always at risk when it comes to sexually transmitted disease. Sexually transmitted disease can occur to any women, even if they are pregnant or not. In America, there are more than 2 million pregnant women who are infected with sexually transmitted disease in a year.
Pregnancy is not an excuse for a woman not to have an STD, thus, it can be more harmful to a pregnant woman and to the baby that she is carrying. However, women who are not pregnant carry an important threat as well, because this disease if left untreated can have many complications.
Having a sexually transmitted disease during pregnancy can be very harmful and it can be more complicated both for the baby and the mother. It is very important that every woman should have knowledge about sexually transmitted disease for them to be equipped and to prevent any infection most especially if the woman is pregnant or attempting to get pregnant. It is good to learn how to protect yourself and especially your future children against the risks of sexually transmitted disease.
Unluckily, the signs of this disease are mostly unseen in women who are carriers of sexually transmitted disease and they may not even have the idea of the infection occurring in their bodies.
Sexually transmitted disease can happen in the same way to non pregnant and pregnant women. It can complicate to cervical cancer, liver cancer, liver cirrhosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, chronic hepatitis and many more. STD during pregnancy can be more complicated, some of these complications are uterine infection, premature labour or premature breaking of the uterine membranes adjoining the infant.
Sexually transmitted infection can be transferred from the mother to the fetus or newborn, because it can happen before and after giving birth. There are some sexually transmitted infections that cross the placenta reaching the fetus and infect it. One of these diseases is syphilis which is very dangerous to the growth of the fetus. Most of the sexually transmitted diseases are transferred during birth through the normal method of birth or the vaginal birth, having the baby exposed to the virus and easily gets infected with it. Some of these viruses are gonorrhea, Chlamydia, hepatitis B and genital herpes. The only STD that can infect the baby by crossing the placenta barrier is the HIV virus. It can also infect through vaginal birth and HIV can also be transmitted through breastfeeding.
If the STD is transferred to the newborn, serious permanent effects can happen making a lifelong damage to the baby. Some of these effects are brain damage, blindness, deafness, motor disorder, cirrhosis, chronic liver disease, meningitis, neonatal sepsis, acute hepatitis and conjunctivitis. All of these effects can be a lifetime condition to the baby an if it is left untreated, it can cause death.
What is doubtful about the situation is that STD in newborn babies can also be asymptomatic and can appear months or years after the first infection resulting it to be undiagnosed, undetected and untreated that can lead to a more serious and complicated conditions.
Pregnant women are in harm for STD, but there are some STDs that can be treated during pregnancy if the woman have undergone STD tests and are diagnosed to have gonorrhea, vaginosis, Chlamydia or syphilis by simply taking in antibiotics. But unluckily, viral STDs like genital herpes and HIV, the only available treatment is to reduce the signs and symptoms and to prevent the transmission of the disease to the baby.