A mother with hepatitis B does not pass it on to her child. This is because hepatitis B is an infectious disease, but not a genetic disease. Genetic disease refers to a genetic defect in the mother’s or father’s genes that causes the symptoms, which can then be passed through the egg or sperm, combine to form a fertilized egg, and cause the next generation to carry the gene. However, the hepatitis B virus does not penetrate deeply into the genes and does not travel with the egg or sperm to the genes of the next generation, so hepatitis B cannot be transmitted genetically. The way in which hepatitis B is transmitted from mother to child is called mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B. It is transmitted from the mother’s blood to the baby during childbirth. Another form of transmission is when the child is in the womb, because the mother has a high level of hepatitis B virus, which is transmitted through the placenta in the womb, not through genetic transmission.