Tuberculosis: Here's how it can impact your pregnancy

Tuberculosis is a communicable infection. A bacteria infects your lungs during tuberculosis and spreads through the air when you cough or sneeze. This bacteria attacks your lungs mainly. There are two types of tuberculosis – active tuberculosis and latent tuberculosis. In latent tuberculosis, the infection simply exists in your body but doesn’t spread to impact you. It is inactive and your immune system ensures that the germs don’t multiply. Inactive tuberculosis the immune system fails and the infection becomes active and the germs start to multiply and affect your body. If you have active tuberculosis you can easily contaminate the air and spread the bacteria. The latent tuberculosis infection can remain in your body and get reactivated any time.

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If you’re pregnant and have tuberculosis it can be a little tricky. Any disease during your pregnancy can have an impact on your child. Even the medications used to treat a disease can have an impact on your baby. During a pregnancy, tuberculosis can not only impact your baby but also you. This disease is as dangerous as they come. It can harm your health and lead to death as well. This disease is like a sword hanging on the head of the mother as well as the child. The signs and symptoms of pregnancy can be masked by the symptoms of pregnancy. This is why spotting this disease can be very difficult during pregnancy.

Not treating this disease can make it much worse and lead to the death of the mother and the child. It also puts the pregnant woman at the risk of a miscarriage or the stunted growth of the baby. 

This disease can also spread and affect the child. Keeping in mind that a baby is at growing stage and has a developing immune system. It can also cause swelling in the internal growing organs of the baby and impact the functioning of the child’s organs. 

It is essential to treat this disease properly with the right antibiotics so that it does not impact the mother or the child. More importantly, it is essential that you consult a doctor and find out everything that you can about this disease if you are pregnant.