Understanding Risky Pregnancies: Managing Complications for Healthy Outcomes

Although the term “risk pregnancy” can sound intimidating, it does not necessarily mean that the pregnancy will not be completed successfully. With proper medical follow-up, it is possible to avoid complications and protect the health of the mother and fetus, especially after the great medical development.

According to Dr. Andrew Haddad, a gynecologist who specializes in high-risk pregnancy and genetic medicine, “The age of the mother is a major factor in the risk of complications from pregnancy and childbirth. Women under the age of 17 or over the age of 35 are at greater risk than others.”

Sometimes, certain conditions of the fetus, and sometimes its genes, can pose a risk to the pregnancy and the mother. “If the child has a genetic disease or any change in the DNA that may lead to a genetic disease, it can cause a risky pregnancy. And consanguineous marriage leads to a high incidence of such diseases,” Haddad says.

He adds, “Some symptoms of a dangerous pregnancy may begin to appear in the first months. It can also occur in any month of pregnancy. High blood pressure associated with pregnancy, for example, generally appears after the 20th week of pregnancy. In bad cases, pregnancy may be accompanied by blurry vision, bleeding, and headaches.” Its intensity and frequency may increase with the progression of the months of pregnancy, which may force the child to be delivered prematurely. In some cases, he will have to sacrifice the fetus to save the mother. It turns into pre-eclampsia, and it can also be treated, so it does not develop.”

Dr. Haddad in the operating room

Rare cases
Dr. Haddad points out that the term “risky pregnancy” includes several types, some of which are rare and some that are more common. In Lebanon and the Middle East, some genetic diseases are common, such as thalassemia, Mediterranean fever, and others. It increases the risk of complications during pregnancy. For example, Mediterranean fever may cause inflammation in the body, resulting in symptoms such as high fever in the mother, pain in the abdomen, chest, and joints, in addition to redness and inflammation of the skin. He adds, “The first risk is the possibility that the fetus will inherit the genes of this disease by 50% if the father is a carrier of the genes of this disease and the mother is infected with it. Preeclampsia or even miscarriage.

In some difficult cases that a woman experiences, it is difficult for her to get pregnant again. Haddad asserts that “there are conditions that may force us to inform the patient that pregnancy may pose a danger to her, and therefore it is better to avoid it, such as some heart diseases, pulmonary hypertension, mechanical valve, and kidney disease in its advanced stages.”

Haddad, who works at the Hackensack University Medical Center in the United States, and is on a visit to Lebanon, says that in rare cases we have to surgically intervene the fetus to avoid losing it. He recounts a rare case that he followed a few months ago, when he saw a patient whose fetus, a girl, was suffering from fullness of water in her lungs, which impeded her growth. We had to pierce the fetus’s chest and install a tube in its lungs to drain the water from it constantly and allow it to grow normally. Months later, the baby’s lungs improved and she was born healthy.”

Follow-up avoids the worst
This story reflects the development of medicine and the high percentages of the possibility of saving the child and the mother together.
It is true that the rate of dangerous pregnancy affects a large group of women around the world, but solutions are possible and the negative repercussions of many cases can be avoided. With careful follow-up, women who are diagnosed with a dangerous pregnancy can also get appropriate treatments and follow-up. Haddad points out that “many complications of some diseases can be avoided through constant communication between the doctor and the pregnant woman and informing him of her medical history. Also, among the necessary procedures is conducting an echocardiogram in the first trimester of pregnancy, then in the second trimester, and then every month to verify of fetal growth, and finally in the third trimester at least once a week, as the case may be.