KJM

To our knowledge, the virus does not cross the placenta; it is merely the effects of the virus (cytokine release. etc) that causes the damage. I would of course be very interested to hear anything to the contrary.

We have not (thankfully) had a proven case of H1N1 in a newborn in Northern Australia (as yet). We have however had in-utero deaths. The most important recommendation to come from this experience is that pregnant women should take tamiflu ASAP (within 1st 48 hours of illness); 4 hourly paracetamol and HIGH dose folate. This appears to minimise the damaging effects of cytokines on the foetus. For suspected neonatal cases we have been isolating baby from all family and all others in the NICU. There have been criticisms of seperating mother and baby, but obviously, once H1N1 was disproven, mum was able to see baby again. This of course has the potential to expose other babies in the NICU. Luckily we have a handful of negative pressure isolation rooms, which avoided this.