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Steve & Claire
Our Results Were So Good, We Never Advertised Elsewhere Like We Planned. We wanted to write you earlier, but being new parents is more time consuming than we realized. We knew life would be different, but somehow we just didn’t appreciate it fully until we got a chance to go through it ourselves first hand. We want you to know that our Parent Profile on the ParentProfiles.com website was a huge success. more ...
High Risk Pregnancy
Any pregnancy which is thought to be dangerous for either the mother-to-be or her baby is noted as being high risk. A high risk pregnancy can occur from two different angles. First of all, the pregnancy may be deemed high risk from the positive test being confirmed by a doctor, and secondly, a seemingly healthy pregnancy may develop complications which will necessitate in the pregnancy being identified as a high risk one.
In the first instance this means that the mother has some form of pre-existing medical condition, such as cancer, diabetes, or lupus. These conditions already take their toll on the body, and pregnancy will add to the stress placed on the mother-to-be's organs. With careful monitoring by her medical team however, many women with this kind of medical background manage to give birth to healthy babies. Another set of women who fit into this first category of high risk pregnancies are those with a history of pregnancy complications such as miscarriage, premature birth, still birth or conditions such as pre-eclampsia. Substance or alcohol abusers and even heavy smokers may also be thought to be high risk especially if other factors are involves such as weight or age issues.
The second type of high risk pregnancy is where a seemingly healthy woman who has no pre-existing medical problem, or family history of pregnancy issues, develops complications as the pregnancy develops. Problems with the placenta such as placenta previa, or abruption placentae (where part of the placenta detaches from the uterus wall), are also high risk issues.
There are two large factors in bringing a high risk pregnancy to full-term - or as close to it as possible. The first is early detection, especially in the second type where complications arise in an otherwise healthy pregnancy, as this enables monitoring and treatment to take place so that the mother and baby are in as little danger as possible. Then the second factor is in education. If a pregnant women finds herself in a high risk pregnancy, she should find out as much as she can about her condition and how best to deal with it. Doctors will be able to give the medical knowledge she needs, but by networking with other pregnant women, or those who recently had babies, who have (or had) the complication or condition. From these women she will learn how it is to actually live with being pregnant in a high risk pregnancy. The emotional support and practical advice from women who have experienced the same as a woman just told she is high risk is almost as important as the medical support she will get from her pregnancy team. If the high risk is such that the pregnant woman is placed either in hospital or on bed rest, networking with other high risk pregnant women online is invaluable.
The internet holds many resources for anyone who finds themselves in a high risk pregnancy situation. Searching for the actual condition will bring up information on what it is, and how it affects the woman and her baby, and then searching for the condition and forum will bring up a list of places where she can network with other moms to be who are also high risk. Learning from the resources, plus listening and following the advice from doctors will help to increase the changes of delivering a healthy baby to a happy mother.
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