Maternal fever in pregnancy

What it means

The occurrence of an elevated body temperature of the mother during pregnancy.

There is evidence to suugest that maternal fever during pregnancy may negatively affect offspring healthneural tube defects, congenital heart defects, and oral clefts, in which meta-analyses suggested between a 1.5- and nearly 3-fold increased risk with fever exposure in the first trimester.

Rare diseases that can present with this2

The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.

Part of the broader category

Also called: Maternal fever during pregnancy