Obstetric aspects of maternal hepatitis C infection

: The present study discusses problems of maternal infection with hepatitis C virus in pregnancy with respect to the recent publications on this subject. In particular, questions of vertical transmission during pregnancy and fetal infection sub partu are discussed using three cases as an example. It was shown that recently few informations on the risk of transmission of the hepatitis C virus from the mother to the infant in utero or sub partu are existing, but the actual studies provide some evidence for this risk to be relatively low. The actual knowledge concerning the mode of delivery of hepatitis C positive women as well as recommendations concerning the diagnostic and therapeutic procedures are comprehensively shown on the basis of the recent scientific results.