Hepatitis is a type of infection that can seriously damage your liver. And if you’re pregnant, you can pass it on to your newborn.
You can have one of the three most common types of hepatitis viruses -- A, B, and C -- and not know it. Usually, it won’t hurt your unborn baby or affect your pregnancy. If your doctor knows you have it, or might have it, they can help you manage it during your pregnancy to lower the chances of any long-term liver disease for you and your baby.
Hepatitis C (HCV)
You catch this virus through contact with blood. Today, most Americans get it after sharing needles or other tools to inject drugs. HCV is showing up in more and more pregnant women, probably because of the sharp rise in injection drug use.
How HCV Affects Your Baby
More than 1 in 20 infants born to mothers with HCV will get the virus. That can happen in the womb, during delivery, or after the baby is born. The disease usually does not affect your baby before birth. Your child can’t catch the virus from your breast milk, but stop nursing and check with your doctor if your nipples are cracked or bleeding, since the virus spreads through blood.
There’s no way to prevent the virus from spreading to your baby. You don’t need to deliver by cesarean section just because you have hepatitis C.
Test and Care
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC both now recommend testing infants for hepatitis C at age 2-6 months using the hepatitis C RNA test. Infants who test positive should be referred to a pediatric infectious disease or hepatitis C specialist. Though treatment doesn't start until age 3, early testing is important because follow-up becomes much less likely after the first year or so. Studies have shown that testing at 2–6 months leads to higher rates of diagnosis.
What You Can Do
All major advisory bodies, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the Infectious Disease Society of America, and the CDC, recommend routine screening for hepatitis C during pregnancy. If you're pregnant, ask your doctor about hepatitis C screening. Four out of 5 people with HCV don’t have any symptoms.
Your doctor likely won’t treat you for hepatitis C while you’re pregnant because there isn't yet enough data to determine whether the medications are safe for your baby.
Hepatitis B (HBV)
Like hepatitis C, this virus can cause serious infections that damage the liver. You can pass both viruses to your baby before, during, or after vaginal or C-section delivery. The difference with hepatitis B is that:
- You can get it not only through blood, but less likely through semen, vaginal discharge, saliva, and other body fluids.
- A vaccine can prevent HBV infection, and babies in the U.S. often get it at birth.
- Doctors regularly test pregnant women for it.
- If you’re infected, the chances of passing it to your baby are much higher than for hepatitis C. If you’ve gotten sick with hepatitis B in the last 6 months, what your doctor may call acute infection, your newborn has a 90% chance of getting it. If you’ve had the infection for longer, called chronic hepatitis B, that chance drops to 10-20%.
Care After Delivery
There’s no cure for hepatitis B. But if your newborn gets their first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine and another shot called hepatitis B immune globulin within 12 hours, they have better than a 90% chance of never getting the virus. Babies routinely get the first shot. But they get the immune globulin only if the mother has or is suspected of having HBV. The baby also needs two remaining doses of the vaccine over the next 6 months to get maximum protection.
In general, you can safely breastfeed if you have hepatitis B. If your nipples are cracked or bleeding, you should temporarily stop breast feeding until the nipples are healed. Talk to your doctor if you are unsure.
*Note: The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that all babies get the first shot of the hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth, followed by a shot at 1-2 months old, and a third shot between 6 and 18 months old. In December 2025, the CDC recommended parents consult with their health care provider before deciding on this vaccine schedule. The AAP still strongly backs universal hepatitis B vaccination for infants, including the birth dose.
Hepatitis A (HAV)
This is a much milder form of hepatitis than the other two types. But it’s the only one that can cause serious problems during your pregnancy.
You usually get hepatitis A by eating or drinking something that has had contact with an infected person’s poop, such as through dirty hands during food prep. Most people recover on their own without treatment. It’s rare for pregnant women to pass it to their child.
But HAV can make you go into labor too early, especially if you get the virus after your first trimester. It can lead to other dangerous complications, such as causing your placenta to separate from your uterus before your baby is ready to be born.
What You Can Do
Hepatitis A is more common in places without clean food and water and with poor sanitation systems. If you are pregnant or of childbearing age, consider getting an HAV vaccine before you visit those areas. If you’ve eaten at a restaurant that reported a hepatitis A outbreak, see your doctor. A vaccine can help protect you and your unborn baby. But you need to get it within 2 weeks of getting the virus.
