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slapped cheek syndrome

I just wanted others to know more about this virus. I work in a childrens nursery and an outbreak of this virus had been doing the rounds. I had read in a magazine that this could be a danger in pregnancy and asked my boss for advice. I then contacted my local maternity ward and my G.P and was advised to stay off work untill they checked blood they had taken from me at 16 weeks ( at this point I was 20 weeks) to see if I had Immunity. Two weeks later my results showed I had no immunity and more blood was taken. This blood result came 10 days later and showed that I had the virus (parvovirus b19) I was scanned the next day to check the baby to see if baby was anemic. I am now having scans every two weeks to check baby now 29 weeks. This has been a very scary time for me and I think more needs to be done to raise awareness. I only knew about the dangers by chance and would hate other mums to suffer due to a lack of knowledge as this can cause miscarrage, Cardiac failure in baby and still born babies. I was lucky to find out and recive extra care and hopefully my baby wont suffer due to this xxxxx

Replies

  • Thanks for posting this. I'm still ttc at the moment but work in an infant school and slapped cheek is quite common. I'll be very aware of it when I finally get my bfp - didn't realise the consequences were so serious. x
  • hi this was also going around the school where i work. i was off for 2 weeks and am waiting results of second blood test. im off for easter at the moment so hopefully all fine.

    but i hadnt known about it until checked on internet. im 22 wks now.

    hope all goes well

    becs xx
  • Eek, my little brother has just had slapped cheek and I've seen him a couple of times while he's had it. Is it really contagious? How do you catch it? Do you have any symptoms if you do have it?

    I'm scared now! I'm 35 weeks pregnant.

    xxx
  • Well im no doctor but you are quite far on it generally only is bad in the first 19 weeks, If your worried please speak to your midwife. Its better to be safe than sorry. xx Ps. yes it is really contagious and some of the symptoms in adults are flu like symptoms.
  • Just caught up with the weekend posts.
    Thanks for posting this. I work in a primary school that had a case diagnosed last Monday. Unfortunately because of a severe kidney infection and the antibiotics I can only have a blood test done tomorrow.
    I think that information about illnessess that can be dangerous in pregnancy should be made available from doctors surgeries and chemists for anyone to pick up and read while ttc.
    I knew nothing about slapped cheek till last week.
    Thanks again hun.x
  • Thanks for posting this. I rang the hospital and mw spoke to the obstetrician for me and said I should be fine being so far along but I can go for a blood test if I want to. No-one ever mentions these sorts of illnesses that can be dangerous do they? You ought to get a leaflet that tells you this info.

    xxx
  • oh my goodness I didn't even know this existed! I too work at a school as an administrator so I don't have that much regular contact with the children, can adults carry it and pass it on? What advise would you give people like myself' ttc. Sorry for hijacking!x x
  • Hi, I too work in a school. My doctor told me to watch out for chicken pox (never had it, but that if it does the rounds he'll do a blood test to check for immunity), german measles and slapped cheek. Slapped cheek has a posh technical name but is called this as one of the symptoms is scarlet cheeks.

    Apparently slapped cheek is more common in the spring time and usually occurs in children under 9 but adults can catch it without seeing any signs or symptoms.

    It's scary because once the cheeks do appear it means the virus is already doing the rounds and there's very little you can do about it. I've found parents to be very unhelpful and try to send them back to school early saying the child's mentally healthy so ok to come to school - and the parents are ok to go back to work - oh the cynic that I am!!!

    Hopefully though now being more visibly pregnant parents will take the risk more seriously as I was told that it can cause miscarrriages in 2nd trimester and still birth in 3rd.

    It really is a scary and worrying and I totally agree that their schould be more info on it readily available especially in the doctors and in nurseries.
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