High-risk pregnancies don’t necessarily mean that there is inherent risk to the health of the baby or the mother, but certainly implies that extra care is warranted. High risk pregnancies happen either due to pre-existing health conditions, a previously difficult pregnancy or certain health conditions that you may have developed during the course of this pregnancy.
Health conditions like obesity, diabetes, blood disorders, chronic kidney problems etc., increase the risk during pregnancy. Also, certain lifestyle factors such as excessive smoking, drinking, drug abuse also pose a potential danger.
Weight-gain during pregnancy is normal, however, excessive weight can does pose a potential risk, as does high blood pressure. Conception at a later stage of your reproductive life is also difficult to sustain while thyroid related issues are an inherent risk to pregnancy.
There are several factors that can cause additional complications during pregnancy and these are precipitated by factors such as – age of conception, pre-existing health conditions, lifestyle-related habits, excessive weight gain – this could be pre-conception or during the course of the pregnancy itself. Each of these factors put the health of the mother and consequently the health of the growing fetus at a higher risk than normal.
In some cases, a risk-high pregnancy may not have to actually with the present term of pregnancy, the risks could be rooted in the pre-existing conditions of the mother. Some of the pre-existing conditions that increase the risk during pregnancy include – thyroid disorders, diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease and any other blood-related disorders. In some cases, complications in past pregnancies may automatically qualify a mother for high-risk pregnancy. These conditions include – premature labour in the past, miscarriages in the past, foetal problems and multiple births in the past.
A high-risk pregnancy doesn’t mean that there will definitely be complications and contingencies to deal with. What it means is that the chance of complications and contingencies is higher than normal, and a few extra precautions should be able to mitigate these risks to a large extent. Frequent consultations with your gynecologist, strict adherence to the diet & medicine schedule, staying away from smoking & alcohol consumption during the course of the pregnancy and adequate physical activity – are some of the simple but effect ways of dealing with a high-risk pregnancy.
Avoiding high-risk pregnancy means avoiding pregnancy altogether. Because inherently, there is a heightened degree of precaution that you ought to take during your pregnancy term. And for a high-risk pregnancy, the level of precaution is slightly higher. Also, in some cases, the high-risk pregnancy has nothing to do with the current conception. And some pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, kidney issues are long term complications that cannot change.
Thus, instead of focusing on avoiding high-risk pregnancies, the focus ought to be on mitigating the risk of a high-risk pregnancy.
