Wife Got A Virus Few Days Before Birth - 4 Days To Go…

My wife got a virus from my nephew yesterday. She had a tough night with loads of coughing and no sleep. That also meant that I didn’t get any sleep. When I came back from work my wife told me she felt worse than before and I took her to the hospital.

4 days before her planned delivery date is not the right time to get ill. The doctor took her temperature which was 38.9 and recorded the baby’s heartbeat for a session of 30 minutes.

This was done with an audio belt strapped around my wife’s stomach, and with “microphones” attached to the belt. These microphones then gave input to an audio recorder, which recorded the baby’s heartbeat count onto a paper stream, much like earthquake vibration recorder machines you see in the movies.

This gave the doctor an idea of how the baby was. Additionally he checked the baby’s position and other “regular midwife check” stuff. Thank God the baby was fine.

I asked 2 different doctors the same question: “How does it affect the baby if the mother is ill?”

One of them said, it doesn’t affect the baby. The baby is usually well protected in the womb and usually stays fine.

The other one told me, that if the mother gets ill so does the baby inside the womb.

So, who to believe?

With my limited knowledge of biology, I would assume that the first statement is correct as the mother and baby each have their own blood supply and the virus is in the blood.

Although the latter statement could be true, earlier in the pregnancy, where the mother and the baby share the same blood supply.

Any reader with more knowledge than me, feel free to chime in with input.

So at this point in time, there is nothing to do besides let my wife get as much rest as possible so that she may recover before her due date.