9 Health conditions that can endanger pregnancy & bull; hello healthy

Pregnancy puts extra weight on your body, and the health condition you were in before you became pregnant can affect how healthy you were during pregnancy. This can also have an impact on the well-being of the baby in your womb.

If you have a long-term chronic condition, such as epilepsy or one of the conditions listed below, this can affect the decisions you make about your pregnancy, such as how you will go into labor.

Although in general there is no specific reason why you can't have a smooth pregnancy and a healthy baby, some health conditions need careful management to minimize the risks to you and your baby.

Health conditions that may affect pregnancy safety

If you have a chronic condition - including one of the conditions listed in this article - it is very important to make an appointment with a doctor or specialist before you plan a pregnancy or as soon as you become pregnant. This is so that you and your team of doctors can develop a treatment plan tailored to your needs.

Also, if you are currently taking medication, do not stop a dose without consulting your doctor.

1. Asthma

Pregnancy is less likely to cause asthma if you've never had this condition before. However, asthma is a serious medical condition that has the potential to complicate, often unexpectedly, the safety of your pregnancy. When women with asthma became pregnant, the study of a third of patients improved, one third got worse, and the last third did not show any change, reported the NHS.

A review of studies on asthma and pregnancy found that if asthma symptoms worsen, they are most likely to occur in the second and third trimesters (after about 13 weeks), with a peak in the sixth month. Another study found that the worst symptoms occurred between weeks 24 and 36 - after this, symptoms decreased and about 90% of women had no asthma symptoms during labor or birth.

Pregnancy can affect asthma patients in a number of ways. The hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy can affect the nose, sinuses, and also the lungs. The increase in the hormone estrogen during pregnancy contributes to congestion of the capillaries (small blood vessels) in the lining of the nose, which can cause nasal congestion during pregnancy (especially during the third trimester). The progesterone surge causes an increase in breathing, and a feeling of shortness of breath may be experienced as a result of the increase in hormones. This series of events may be misunderstood with or add to allergies or other triggers of asthma.

The best way to ensure a healthy pregnancy is to keep your asthma well controlled by sticking to your asthma treatment plan. If your asthma is well controlled, there is little or no risk of harm to you or your baby.

2.Hypertension (high blood pressure)

Before trying to become pregnant, women with hypertension should be counseled about the risks of pregnancy. If they are pregnant, pregnancy care should be implemented as early as possible and include basic kidney function (eg, serum creatinine, BUN), funduscopic examinations, and directed cardiovascular evaluation (auscultation and sometimes an ECG, echocardiography, or both).

At the end of pregnancy, high blood pressure can pose a serious threat to both mother and baby. Likewise with uncontrolled hypertension. Both of these situations can cause damage to the mother's kidneys and increase the risk of low birth weight or preeclampsia, and should be treated promptly.

The beneficial aspects of high blood pressure medication therapy should be weighed against the potential risks to the unborn fetus. Many women with chronic hypertension will take medications to keep their blood pressure in the range that is best for them (target range). Some drug treatments for high blood pressure are not recommended in pregnancy. If you are taking tablets, it is important to consult with your doctor to find out if you need to change to another medication before you become pregnant. If you are taking medicine to control your blood pressure and you become pregnant, tell your doctor right away. You may need to change to a different medication - your doctor will talk to you about this.

It is important for your team of doctors to closely monitor the progress of your condition to ensure that your baby is growing normally.

3. Coronary heart

Coronary heart disease (CHD) occurs due to narrowing of the blood vessels that supply blood and oxygen to the heart. Coronary heart disease during pregnancy is a rare condition, because this disease is more common in women over 50 years. However, this phenomenon is becoming increasingly common, following a growing number of women who become pregnant at an older age, or are overweight or smoke. Both smoking and being overweight increase your risk of coronary heart disease.

The main risk for women with coronary heart disease who become pregnant is that they will have a heart attack during pregnancy. Heart attacks are the leading cause of maternal death during pregnancy. The risks to the baby are not known, although some of the drugs you take for CHD or related conditions, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, can affect your baby.

The best way to ensure a healthy pregnancy is to visit a doctor or heart specialist before you start trying for babies. Your obstetrician or cardiologist can provide advice on medications that are safe to take during pregnancy, and may be able to adjust your medication to minimize any risks to you and your baby.

4. Diabetes

Diabetes is a condition which is affected by pregnancy and also affects the course of pregnancy itself. If you already have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, you may have a higher risk of having a baby who is large (which increases the risk of a difficult birth), has an induced labor, has a cesarean section, gives birth to a baby with congenital birth defects (especially heart defects). and the nervous system), respiratory problems since the time the baby was born, and had a miscarriage or stillbirth. Your baby also has a risk for developing obesity or diabetes later in life.

It is important for women with diabetes to manage their blood sugar levels before becoming pregnant. High sugar levels can cause birth defects during the first few weeks of pregnancy, often before they know they are pregnant. Controlling blood sugar levels, regularly using insulin, and taking a multivitamin with 40 micrograms of folic acid every day can help reduce this risk. Unfortunately, pregnancy makes diabetes much more difficult to control; In general, blood sugar and insulin requirements will increase during pregnancy.

The best way to reduce the risk for yourself and your baby's health is to make sure your diabetes is under control before you become pregnant. Consult your gynecologist or diabetes specialist for advice. You should be referred to a dedicated diabetes patient pre-conception clinic for support before you try to get pregnant.

5. Obesity

Obesity can make pregnancy more difficult, increasing a woman's chances of developing diabetes during pregnancy, which can contribute to difficult births. Obesity also increases the risk of high blood pressure, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, blood clots, stillbirths, and emergency caesarean procedures or induced labor.

If you are overweight, the best way to protect your baby's health and well-being is to lose weight before becoming pregnant. By achieving a healthy weight, you increase your chances of getting pregnant healthily and reduce the risk of problems associated with being overweight in pregnancy. Good antenatal care can also help to minimize this risk.

If you got pregnant before losing weight, try not to worry - most obese women's pregnancies are successful. but possible problems for your baby can include preterm birth, neural tube defects (spina bifida), and a higher risk of obesity later in life. NICHD researchers have found that obesity can increase a baby's risk of heart problems at birth by 15%. If you are very overweight and pregnant, do not try to lose weight during your pregnancy, as this may not be safe. There is no evidence that losing weight while you are pregnant reduces your risk.

6. Epilepsy

It is difficult to predict how pregnancy will affect epilepsy. For some women, their epilepsy is unaffected, while others may see an increase in their seizures. But just as pregnancy can cause physical and emotional stress, seizures can also become more frequent and severe. Hormonal and menstrual cycles, pregnancy, menopause - all these stages of life are affected by epilepsy. While most women with epilepsy can and do get pregnant, they may have certain risks that women without epilepsy do not have. This risk can affect their health and that of their baby.

Their epilepsy treatment may be affected by their hormonal state or their epilepsy and that treatment may affect their hormones. If you are taking medications to control your epilepsy, it's recommended that you take a high daily dose of folic acid (5mg) as soon as you start trying to get pregnant. Your doctor can prescribe this. If you suddenly become pregnant and haven't taken folic acid, take it as soon as possible. Whatever you do, do not change or stop your epilepsy medication without specialist advice. Severe seizures during pregnancy can be fatal for both you and your baby.

However, if managed properly, the risk will be very small. In fact, more than 90% of women with epilepsy who become pregnant can have healthy babies.

7. Kidney disease

Women with chronic kidney disease are less able to adapt to the kidneys necessary for a healthy pregnancy. Their inability to increase renal hormones often leads to normocytic normochromic anemia, reduced plasma volume expansion, and vitamin D deficiency.

There is solid evidence to show that women with very mild kidney disease (stages 1-2), normal blood pressure, and little or no protein in the urine (called proteinuria) can have healthy pregnancies. Proteinuria is a sign of kidney damage. Your body needs protein, but it has to be in your blood, not in urine.

In women with moderate to severe kidney disease (stages 3-5), the risk of complications is much greater. For some women, the risks to the safety of the mother and child are high enough that they should consider avoiding pregnancy.

Hypertension, proteinuria, and recurrent urinary tract infections often coexist in women with chronic kidney disease, and it is difficult to say how much of each of these contributes to poor pregnancy outcomes. It appears, however, that each factor, both individually and cumulatively, is detrimental to the fetus. If pre-eclampsia develops, maternal renal function often worsens, but the addition of prerenal lesions that reduce renal blood flow, such as peripartum hemorrhage or regular use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, can threaten the mother's kidney function.

Women with kidney failure are usually advised to avoid planning a pregnancy. The level of complications is very high. The risks to the mother and pregnancy safety are also very high. Women with severe kidney problems have the greatest difficulty conceiving, the highest rates of miscarriage, and the least successful pregnancy outcomes. If you are thinking about becoming pregnant, talk to your doctor. If you are pregnant, you will need close medical supervision, a change in medication, and more dialysis to have a healthy baby.

8. Autoimmune disease

Autoimmune diseases include conditions such as lupus and thyroid disease. Some autoimmune diseases can increase a woman's risk for problems during pregnancy. For example, lupus can increase the risk of preterm birth and stillbirth.

Women with kidney disease or lupus (a disease caused by changes in the immune system causing inflammation of the connective tissue and organs) are at real risk during pregnancy, when symptoms can worsen significantly and lead to serious illness. Since this disease can affect the ability of the mother to supply oxygen and nutrients to the baby through the placenta, it can also cause problems for the baby. The baby of this woman may not be able to grow and gain weight optimally; some may be stillborn.

Some women may find that their symptoms improve during pregnancy, while others have more severe episodes of lupus and other challenges. Certain medications to treat autoimmune diseases can harm the fetus as well.

Uncontrolled thyroid disorders, such as an overactive or underactive thyroid can cause problems for the fetus, such as heart failure, poor body weight, and birth defects.

9. HIV / AIDS

HIV / AIDS damages cells of the immune system, making it difficult to fight certain infections and cancers. Pregnant women can pass the virus to the fetus during pregnancy; Transmission can also occur during labor and delivery or through breastfeeding.

In most cases, HIV will not cross the placenta from mother to baby. If the mother's condition is healthy in other aspects, the placenta will help provide protection for the developing baby. Factors that can reduce the protective ability of the placenta include uterine infection, recent HIV infection, advanced HIV infection, or malnutrition. If a woman is infected with HIV, her risk of passing the virus to her baby is reduced if she remains as healthy as possible. Fortunately, effective treatments exist to reduce the spread of HIV from mother to fetus, including neonatal or more "adult" babies. Women who have very low viral loads may be able to have a normal delivery with a low risk of transmission.

An option for pregnant women with higher viral loads (a measure of the amount of active HIV in the blood) is a cesarean section, which reduces the risk of HIV transmission to the baby during labor and delivery. Early and regular prenatal care is essential. Women who take medications to treat HIV and have cesarean delivery can reduce the risk of transmission by up to 2 percent.

10. Mental illness

If you have a history of severe mental health problems - or are still active today, you are more likely to have episodes of the disorder during pregnancy or in the first year after giving birth than at other times in your life.

Severe mental health problems including affective bipolar disorder, major depression, and psychosis. After giving birth, severe mental illness can develop more rapidly and be more serious than before. Other, milder mental health problems can also be more problematic during this time, although they may not always happen to you. Everyone is different, and has different triggers for relapses. You may also be worried about your well-being.

Depression and anxiety during pregnancy have been associated with adverse pregnancy safety outcomes. Women who suffer from mental illness during pregnancy are less likely to receive inadequate prenatal care and are more likely to switch to alcohol, tobacco, and other substances known to affect pregnancy outcomes. Several studies have demonstrated low birth weight and underdevelopment of the fetus in children born to depressed mothers. Preterm birth is another potential complication of pregnancy in women who experience depression during pregnancy. Pregnancy complications related to depression and anxiety at the end of pregnancy are also known, including an increased risk of developing preeclampsia, operative delivery, and emergency ICU infant care for a variety of conditions including respiratory distress, hypoglycemia, and prematurity.

During your first antenatal consultation, your doctor should ask you about your past mental health problems. You should also be asked about this again after the birth of your baby. This aims to enable your care team to detect any warning signs more quickly and plan appropriate treatment for the safety of your pregnancy.