Treatment of High Risk Pregnancy (Complicated pregnancy conditions)

A high-risk pregnancy is one that threatens the health or life of the mother or her fetus. It requires specialized care from specially trained providers.

Some pregnancies become high risk as they progress, while some women are at increased risk for complications even before they get pregnant for a variety of reasons.

Early and regular prenatal care helps many women have healthy pregnancies and deliveries without complications.

Risk factors for a high-risk pregnancy can include:

• Existing health conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or epilepsy, heart disease,or medical disease affecting baby.

• Overweight and obesity. Obesity increases the risk for high blood pressure, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, stillbirth, neural tube defects, and cesarean delivery. Researchers have found that obesity can raise infants' risk of heart problems at birth by 15%.

• Multiple births. The risk of complications is higher in women carrying more than one fetus (twins and higher-order multiples). Common complications include preeclampsia, premature labor, and preterm birth. More than one-half of all twins and as many as 93% of triplets are born at less than 37 weeks' gestation.

• Other conditions include;

o recurrent miscarriages

o kidney disease

o cancer in pregnancy

o Rh blood factor problems

o history of pre-term birth or pregnancy complications

o genetic disease in the mother or family

o births birth defects identified before birth

• Any medical condition which develops during course of pregnancy and can potentially affect mother and baby need extra care.

• Women with high-risk pregnancies should receive care from a special team of health care providers to ensure the best possible outcomes.