Maternity Archives - ILS Hospitals

What is a high-risk Pregnancy?

A high-risk pregnancy is a fatal condition during pregnancy or by the end of the pregnancy where the mother or the fetus may face complications during or after the birth. Women with pre-pregnancy complication face many health issues and risks than the women with no pre-pregnancy complication. Although, rarely, few healthy women may also face some problems which can be fatal in nature. Only the advanced maternity hospitals are capable of handling these crisis cases.

The various complications that arise post pregnancy are listed below:

Gestational diabetes: Also known as gestational diabetes mellitus. This may be the first complication that women may face post pregnancy. After conforming pregnant many women get obsessed with their diet. They start overeating which increases the sugar level in the blood. A healthy and proper diet may help in avoiding and retarding the same. If neglected it can lead to fatal conditions such as premature labor and high blood pressure and so on.

Preeclampsia: It is a condition which appears by or after the 20th week, where the level of blood pressure increases causing the mother to fall sick. It can affect mother’s kidney, liver, and brain. If it remained untreated for long can result in fatal complication for the mother and also the fetus.

Eclampsia: It is a severe complication. Actually, it is another form or last stage of Preeclampsia that causes the mother to have a complicated seizure or worse, a coma. Regular health check-ups may avoid these complications.

Preterm Labor: As the term suggests, here the labor is held before the 37th week. The causes behind this complication could be multiple fetuses, cervix abnormality or infections or previous premature labor. Another reason behind this condition could be conceiving after the age of 35.

Placenta Previa: It is one of the rare but severe complication that a mother might face which shows symptoms in the mid-trimester. It is a condition where the placenta-cover the cervix partially or wholly. It is dangerous because when the cervix dilates and uterus expands can cause damage to the placenta resulting in painless vaginal bleeding or worse hemorrhage.

No matter what the complication is, if discovered by the initial, can be treated fearlessly. So, why to wait till it turns worse. If you are conceiving, get a regular checkup from any of the advanced maternity hospitals established in all over India.

After a full term of pregnancy, a baby is born with body weight ranging between 2500 to 4200 grams in order to live a normal functional life. However, very often some of these babies are born with exceptionally lesser weight than medically considered as ideal. These babies need critical care and are often kept at special care units of maternity hospitals.

As per World Health Organization, babies having a body weight of 2499 grams or less are considered as low birth weight. This is further subdivided into very low birth weight (having less than 1500 gram) and extremely low birth weight (having less than 1000 grams).

Having a low birth weight puts the baby subjected to developing a wide number of medical complications, both in short term and in long term.

Causes of low birth weight

The low birth weight is either caused due to preterm birth or due to being small for the gestational or environmental factor of the prenatal growth and development.

Preterm birth

The gestational period ideally consists of 37 weeks and any pregnancy than matures before this duration is considered as preterm birth. Being born before the ideal time than the baby is supposed to, results in making the baby susceptible to multiple medical issues and being born with a low birth weight is one of them.

Being small for gestational age

As already mentioned, the gestational duration does play an important role. However, some babies born with low birth weight even with a full term. This happens when the baby is doing full term but is underdeveloped with respect to his or her age. It is often a result of some or the other medical or genetic condition. As any malnourished individual would perform less and will be less immunized, the rules apply same for an infant only to a bigger proportion.

Environmental factors

Several factors such as a young age of mother, previous low birth weight babies, multiple pregnancies, poor nutrition, substance abuse and malnourished prenatal stage etc contribute towards negatively affecting the birth weight of the baby. It also includes exposure to smoke, pollutant air, water, lead and other toxic substances as well.

As already mentioned, the babies having a low birth weight is highly likely to suffer immense adverse health conditions. Thus, every family having an expectant mother is advised to take proper care of the mother and the child in every aspect to ensure a safe pregnancy and healthy child. In case of any doubt, it is always wise to approach a maternity hospital as soon as possible.