High-Risk Pregnancy Unpacking the Challenges & Understanding the Risks Ahead
Dec 18, 2024
Building your life often includes planning your family. While the idea does seem rosy and easy but nowadays it isn’t as easy as one might imagine it to be. There are significant factors that are making conceiving process quite difficult to navigate through. As a result, a lot of pregnancies today are high-risk in nature. Let’s explore high-risk pregnancy as a topic, what causes it, what are some key factors that influence it and the risk/complications that influence it.
What is a High-risk Pregnancy?
A high-risk pregnancy is one where both the expecting mother and the face have an increased risk of health issues and complications during the pregnancy phase, delivery process and post-delivery process. While most of the pregnancies are healthy in nature but owing to some circumstances certain pregnancies lead to serious critical problems for themselves and the baby.
The American college of obstetricians and gynaecologists (ACOG) defines this term as those pregnancies where the likelihood of complications is higher than in a typical pregnancy, requiring closer monitoring, specialised care and sometimes urgent medical interventions.
Causes of a High-risk Pregnancy
There are quite a few factors that might contribute to a pregnancy being classified as a high-risk. These are divided into maternal factors, fetal factors and pregnancy-related factors, let’s break them down further here for more insights:
Maternal Factors
- Chronic conditions: Women who are predisposed to chronic conditions such as high-blood sugar, high-blood pressure, diabetes, heart diseases and kidney-related issues are more likely to experience further complications. These conditions can potentially interfere with the progress of pregnancy journey and put the mother and the baby at health risk.
- Obesity: Having a body mass index more or less than required can increase the risk of pregnancy complications like gestational diabetes, miscarriage and preeclampsia.
- Age: Being too young to give birth and too old to give birth – both can create a high-risk environment for the mother and the baby. Cases like high blood pressure, gestational diabetes and chromosomal issues can occur in such cases.
Pregnancy-related factors
- Gestational Diabetes: This condition occurs when an expecting mother develops high blood sugar levels that often go away post the delivery of the baby. But if left untreated, it can lead to complications like premature birth and having a very large baby.
- Preeclampsia: This is a high-blood pressure condition specific to pregnancy journey, if left untreated it can lead to organ damage to the mother and growth issues with baby.
Fetal Factors
- Birth defects: Genetic abnormalities or key development issues in the baby can lead to mild to severe complications. These can include congenital heart defects etc
- Placenta Problems: The placenta can develop placental abruption or placenta previa that pose a serious risk during labor and delivery.
- Fetal Growth Restrictions: The growth of the baby may not be as expected that sometimes can result in low weight of the baby making the baby prone to health-related issues.
Risk and Complications in High-risk Pregnancy?
Women with high-risk pregnancy face a range of potential complications which impacts both them and the baby. Some of the risks are:
- Preterm birth where baby requires specialised care in a neonatal intensive care unit.
- Preeclampsia and Eclampsia can involve seizures which can be fatal to both mother and the baby.
- Postpartum Haemorrhage can lead to excessive bleeding after birth.
- Caesarean delivery is life-threatening that can also lead to fetal distress or failure to progress during labor.
Manging a High-risk Pregnancy?
Despite the risks involved, the good news is that most high-risk pregnancies can be managed with the right care and monitoring such as:
- Early and regular prenatal visits allow the doctors to detect any potential issues early and help them to chart out a path for the mother and the baby.
- Additional specialised tests and screening might be required such as genetic testing, non-invasive prenatal testing to check for birth defects and other key developmental issues.
- Planning for delivery is crucial in such high-risk pregnancy because a planned caesarean or early induction might be required to prevent any kind of harm to the mother and the baby.
In conclusion, a high-risk pregnancy can certainly be challenging but with advancements in medical care, early detection, and proper management, many women with high-risk pregnancies go on to deliver healthy babies. It is rather important for expectant mothers to communicate openly so that they can safeguard their and their baby’s health. If you or your loved ones are expecting or planning a baby, you can explore the top-notch treatment by the gynaecologists at Paras Health. Our facilities have the most sought-after treatment plans, doctors, support staff and advanced tools and machinery to assist and manage a high-risk pregnancy. In case you need to talk to our health experts, please reach us at 080 3535 8735.
