Is it possilbe to have Chlamydia since birth

Dear Ask The Doctor: Hi, I was adopted and today my mother found the papers from the hospital. She was looking through the medical history of my birth mother and father when she saw that my mother had chlamydia. Does this mean i could have it too? i've been having discharge and some pain for a while but i went to the doctor and was put on medication and it went away for about a month and camee back. Now i am thinking i might have the disease but is it possible to have it since birth? I have googled chlamydia but every website tells me something different, and it's embarrassing to talk about it with my mother and she thinks mothers can't pass it to their babies.

Dear Nell:

Hello, I understand your doubt about Chlamydia and I will try my best to clarify it for you. The bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis causes chlamydia. The condition most commonly spreads through sexual intercourse and other intimate contact between genitals and the rectal area. It's also possible for a mother to spread chlamydia to her child during delivery, causing pneumonia or a serious eye infection.

To clarify, the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis that causes the genital infection chlamydia is different from the similarly named airborne bacterium Chlamydophila pneumoniae that causes respiratory infections, including pneumonia. So in the case that your biological mother have passed Chlamydia to you, it might have probably caused eye or lung infections but certainly not genital.  I hope I could clarify your doubt and let me reassure you also that there are other causes of vaginal discharge, for instance some pathogens that are part of the normal flora in your vagina could also produce discharge without been related to any sexual transmitted disease. There is no reason to be ashamed on talking about this with your physician, I am sure that he or she would kindly explain the reason for your discharge. I wish you the best.