Preparing For Pregnancy: High Risk Factors

While some pregnancies may start out normal – they may end up being high risk. Those conditions such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, placenta problems and such occur after the pregnancy is established and then deem the pregnancy high risk. Today I want to talk about factors that are preexisting and will cause the pregnancy to be a high risk right from the beginning.

It is imperative to receive a thorough check-up from your doctor before trying to conceive especially if you already suffer from an illness or medical condition. Proper care before conception will lead to proper care during pregnancy – and most of the time a healthy baby at the end of nine months.

AGE
Depending upon your physician if you are over the age of 35 in most cases you will be considered high risk at the onset of pregnancy. The reason being is that certain conditions such as Down's syndrome occur more often. Also, miscarriages happen more with older women because of the declining hormone levels. A physician will probably see an older woman more often and will want to run non-stress tests and amniocentesis.

CHRONIC CONDITIONS
Most sexually transmitted diseases will put the mother in a high risk group and have to end in a cesarean birth. Other chronic conditions include sickle cell anemia, cancer, lupus, maternal PKU, diabetes Type 1 or 2, uterine fibroids, hypertension, heart conditions and urinary tract infections. With all of these your physician will be seeing you more often.

PAST PREGNANCY CONDITIONS
Sometimes a condition that cropped up in a past pregnancy will make subsequent pregnancies more at risk. These conditions include placenta previa and abrupto, and possibly incompetent cervix. In the past a previous cesarean would cause the subsequent pregnancy to be considered high risk, however with today’s medical technology a previous cesarean is no cause for alarm. VBAC’s (vaginal birth after cesarean) are being done more and more with a high number of successes (I’m one of them!).

Close monitoring of both mother and baby will often keep a check on all the conditions of the high risk pregnancy. Most high risk pregnant moms will go through a number of tests or at least be offered these tests – nonstress and stress tests, amniocentesis, blood tests, urine screenings, CVS (chorionic villus sampling) and level 2 ultra sounds. Some of these tests – CVS and amniocentesis do not come without risks – and you may need to weigh the benefit of having the test to the possible risk involved. However, with today’s medical technology – there is a certain assurance that everything possible is being done to help baby to come to maturity – healthy and whole.

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