Learn about Lupus and Pregnancy

Male Speaker: A mother who has lupus has a baby, is there a risk to the baby?

Female Speaker: There is unfortunately. All women who become pregnant are considered high risk pregnancies and it's very important that they have excellent prenatal care, because their obstetrician will watch very carefully the baby's heart rate because unfortunately the antibodies, those things that the immune system makes, that cause problems in mom can go through to the placenta and affects the baby. And then we are concerned that we watch very carefully the baby's heart-rate and how the baby is developing during the pregnancy.

A lot of things can be short-term in the baby, so the baby might have rashes, may have some blood cell abnormalities. Those are transient. That means that they go away when those antibodies run out. But, if it does affect the heart while the heart is developing, then that's a very important one. It's treatable, but it's very important to follow closely.


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