Rubella and Pregnancy: Symptoms, CRS, Risks, and MMR Facts

*Trigger warning: miscarriage, pregnancy loss, birth defects, infants with complex medical needs.

Rubella sounds like a perfume or a baby name. In this episode, two tired moms in medicine talk about how rubella, also called German measles, nearly wrecked an entire generation of pregnancies and why vaccines changed the game for everyone.

In this Funny Medicine episode you get

• What rubella is, how rubella virus spreads, and why symptoms look so mild in most kids

• Why rubella during pregnancy leads to congenital rubella syndrome, CRS, hearing loss, cataracts, heart defects and lifelong disability

• The story of the 1964 to 1965 rubella pandemic in the United States, with 12.5 million infections and tens of thousands of affected pregnancies

• How the MMR vaccine, especially the rubella piece, slashed CRS cases in countries with strong vaccination programs

• TORCH infections 101, including why pregnant people worry about CMV, toxoplasmosis, varicella and rubella

• Rubella myths and vaccine misinformation, plus a breakdown of the famous fake “MMR causes autism” paper

• Why anti vaccine and “pro life” messaging clash hard when rubella and preventable birth defects enter the chat Perfect for

• Parents, future parents, caregivers

• Med nerds who love disease history and public health