High Pregnancy Risk Causes, Diagnosis and Treatment

Introduction

High risk of pregnancy is the one in which, some of the conditions puts mother, developing baby or both at higher risk for complications as compared to the normal pregnancy phase. The pregnancy risk could be during or after the pregnancy and birth of a baby.

Causes for high risk pregnancy

There are many reasons that can bring high-risk pregnancy in an individual. The triggering factors can be classified into maternal and fetal. The maternal factors include age (younger than 17 and older than age 35); weight (pre-pregnancy underweight or overweight/obese), height (under five feet), history of the complications that has occurred in previous pregnancies (such as stillbirth, fetal loss, preterm labor or delivery, large baby, preeclampsia or eclampsia etc.).

More than five pregnancies, bleeding during the 3rd trimester, abnormalities of the reproductive tract, fibroids, hypertension etc can also bring high risk in pregnancy. Other factor that can cause risk in pregnancy include infections of the vagina or/and cervix. Kidney infection may also interfere with normal pregnancy procedure. Chronic illness such as sickle cell anemia, asthma,autoimmune disease, tuberculosis, herpes, heart disease, kidney disease, ulcerative colitis , pregnancy etc. play major role in increasing the pregnancy risks.

Certain medications can also be causative factors for having risk for pregnancy. The drugs like phenytoin, folic acid antagonists, lithium, tetracycline, warfarin, streptomycin etc can alter the normal procedure of pregnancy.

Apart from all those pathological causes, you also become high-risk pregnant woman if you are carrying two or more fetuses. Twins or triplets are likely to bring complications in pregnancy.

Diagnosis for high-pregnancy risk

A pregnant woman with high risk pregnancy should closely be monitored. This close monitoring may require frequent visits to healthcare provider as compared to normal carrying woman.

The routine tests depend upon what complication does pregnant woman have. The blood checkup is essential to know the levels of medication and hormonal level during pregnancy. Blood glucose level will detect the blood glucose level in pregnant woman.

Ultrasound will be the best tool to detect any of the abnormality inside the uterus. It can measure the fetus length and also predicts the weight of the fetus. It will also show you the position of the fetus and situation of the placenta. Ultrasound is must for pregnant woman to detect any problem in pregnancy phase.

Treatment for high-pregnancy risk

Treatments vary from condition to condition. If the baby has come down before the expected period then stitches are to be taken to retain the fetus inside. If you have high blood glucose level, you are treated in a way that your blood glucose level remains normal. It may require OHD – oral hypoglycemic drugs.

If you are having high blood pressure then you are given anti-hypertensive drugs that will control the pressure shooting up. In certain dangerous conditions such as cord around the neck of the baby, too large baby, baby with no head down, etc may require immediate surgery as the only option.