​Chickenpox and Pregnancy

For more information on chickenpox, see the factsheet Chickenpox.

What do you need to know about chickenpox and pregnancy?

• Pregnant women who have never had chickenpox can develop severe illness if they get chickenpox while pregnant
  
• Chickenpox can also affect the developing baby if the mother becomes infected in the first half of pregnancy
• The newborn baby can develop severe chickenpox if the mother has chickenpox around the time of delivery
  

What can you do to protect yourself?

• Before you are thinking of becoming pregnant, have a blood test to check your antibodies for chickenpox to see if you are protected
• If you are not protected from chickenpox, you should consider the chickenpox vaccine.
• This vaccine cannot be used in pregnancy
• Women who receive this vaccine should wait 3 months to become pregnant
• A reliable form of birth control should be used during this time
• If a pregnant woman is not protected against chickenpox and finds out she has been exposed to someone with chickenpox, she should call her doctor immediately