{"id":32280,"date":"2020-08-06T00:05:42","date_gmt":"2020-08-06T05:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/differentdream.com\/?p=32280"},"modified":"2020-08-06T00:05:42","modified_gmt":"2020-08-06T05:05:42","slug":"the-real-story-of-pregnancy-and-cmv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/the-real-story-of-pregnancy-and-cmv\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Story of Pregnancy and CMV"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The real story of pregnancy and CMV needs to be told often and well. Today guest blogger Amanda Devereaux is here to tell you the story of how Cytomegalovirus (CMV)<\/a><\/span> affects her family and how to avoid passing it on to an unborn child.<\/i><\/p>\n

One of the strangest things about learning your child will have a disability is how the diagnosis seems to come out of nowhere. In general, women do everything they can to have a healthy pregnancy, and most of them expect to have a healthy baby. Interesting, considering about 1 in 33 babies in the US will be born with a birth defect<\/span><\/a>. Many times we, as a society, avoid the idea of having an atypical child because we don\u2019t want to worry expecting parents. Also, there\u2019s often nothing a parent can do before birth to prevent the health condition in the child.<\/p>\n

But what about the times when a condition could be prevented? The real story of pregnancy and CMV in our family illustrates how important prevention is.<\/p>\n

Our daughter\u2019s birth defects stemmed from a preventable infectious disease called Cytomegalovirus<\/a>, or CMV. I, like most people, had little-to-no knowledge about CMV before it caused permanent damage to my daughter\u2019s brain in utero. We found out after our 20 week ultrasound that I had caught CMV early in my second pregnancy and passed it to our unborn child.<\/p>\n

A Common Threat<\/b><\/p>\n

CMV is a common virus, and most people have been infected by the time they are 40. Young children are thought to be hot zones for CMV. They carry it if they catch it outside the womb, and many pregnant women who catch the virus have come into contact with it while caring for children. When the virus crosses the placenta and reaches the unborn child, it can cause permanent damage to their body and brain. Common diagnoses<\/span><\/a> for these children are hearing loss, cerebral palsy, vision loss, epilepsy, and more. One in 1000<\/span><\/a> children born in the US will have a permanent birth defect or health condition due to CMV. 400<\/span><\/a> children will die each year.<\/p>\n

Preventing CMV<\/b><\/p>\n

Because CMV is a contagious virus that passes through direct contact with bodily fluids, it can be prevented. Vaccine work has been ongoing for decades with no vaccine yet approved. Until we can prevent CMV with a vaccine, diligent hygiene by pregnant women and women planning a pregnancy should be practiced. This starts with talking about CMV, not keeping it a secret. Prevention steps include:<\/p>\n