Newborns have a higher risk of death from chickenpox when the mother develops the illness from 5 days before delivery to 2 days after delivery, because the newborn has not received maternal antibodies transplacentally. For this reason, newborns should be separated from mothers who develop chickenpox during that time period¹.

The chickenpox virus, either wild or the vaccine strain, has NOT been shown to be transmitted by human milk. Therefore, a mother who has chickenpox can provide breastmilk to her infant as long as there are no open lesions on the breast^1,2.