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Ever wondered why the doctors always asks for regular physical exams, lab tests and ultra sounds during pregnancy? This is because there could be complications that could arise anytime during the pregnancy. Problems could happen very early on or even at the very end of the pregnancy. Tho most pregnancies are usually gone through happily and beautifully without any problems, there are still the common complications that could occur and should be made aware of such as Bleeding.
This is very bad. They could mean different things throughout the pregnancy. During the first trimester of the pregnancy, if you have heavy bleeding or severe abdominal pain, you feel like you have menstrual cramps, you feel like fainting or any of them altogether, it could mean an ectopic pregnancy or a miscarriage. If the signs came around the third trimester, it may also indicate placental abruption.
So if you are pregnant and you have bleeding, do not stall, you should straight away call for a doctor or go straight to the emergency room and hope for the best.
Now, an Ectopic Pregnancy, is when the fertilized egg stays in the fallopian tube instead of travelling to the uterus to attach itself to the uterus lining. This could happen to 1 in 50 pregnancies. On rare occurrences, instead of the fallopian tube, the egg could get attached to anywhere else other than the uterus such as at the ovaries or even the cervix. This causes problems to the mother to be as it is life threatening. Imagine the fallopian tube as a hose and there is a water balloon inside. The balloon would start to grow as more water is pumped into it and if the growth is too late to be stopped, because the hose is not stretchable, it would burst.
This is basically what happens in an ectopic pregnancy. Thus, the doctor would advice on what should or could be done on the treatment but there is a high chance that surgery would be needed to remove the tube and maybe one of the ovary that is connected to it as well.
The Placental Abruption as stated earlier is when the placenta, which is the thing where all the nutrients are transfered from the mother to the fetus, is partially or completely separated from the uterus before the baby is born. Some say it happens in about 1 in 150 pregnancies some say 1 in 100 but never the less that’s around 1% of pregnant woman.
This situation causes the baby to get deprived of oxygen and nutrients. The bleeding from the separation can also be dangerous for both the mother and the fetus. Also, if the abruption is quite small and goes unnoticed, this is when the risk for the baby to have growth problems increases, the baby may be born prematurely or worse be stillborn.
Other than the bleeding, the symptom for placental abruption is discomfort and tenderness or sudden ongoing belly or back pain.
The next on the list is high blood pressure or hypertension. This is when the blood is constricted from flowing because the arteries in the body became narrowed. Now because of the constriction, the blood pressure is then increased in the arteries.
You could get this even if you have never had any hypertension in your life but apparently it does run in the family. The hypertension would usually go away after the pregnancy but if you had hypertension even before pregnancy, it usually doesn’t go away.
This is a problem during pregnancies because it makes it hard for the blood to reach the placenta. Just like the placental abruption, hypertension could have the same effect to the fetus as the nutrients and oxygen have a hard to be passed to the baby. Also, usually, if it happens to develop in the second half of pregnancy, it increases the risk for the mother to develop preeclampsia, placental abruption and preterm labor.
Preeclampsia
Symptoms of preeclampsia is hypertension and or protein in urine. Other symptoms may include sever headaches, kidney problems, impaired liver function, shortness of breath because of fluid in the lungs, upper abdominal pain, decreased urine output and decreased levels of platelets in the blood.
This could occur around the second half of the pregnancy or right after the baby is delivered which is then called eclampsia. Preeclampsia could develop around 6% of pregnancies and about 2% of pregnancies would have sever cases of it.
Having pre-eclampsia can be life threatening for both the baby and the mother thus a regular check up and a hospital stay is to be expected because the doctor’s would have to constantly monitor the conditions.
Preeclampsia causes the blood vessels to constrict and causes the said hypertension, thus it can lead to poor growth of the fetus, placental abruption, having very little amniotic fluid and preterm labour.
Usually, by the 37-38 weeks of pregnancy, if the condition is getting worse and the life of either or both mother and child is in danger, induced labor or a cesarean section would then be firmly recommended.
Here are other problems that could occur and should be read up if you are expecting or just curious:
- placenta previa
- preterm labor / premature labor and birth
- pregnancy loss / miscarriage
- baby’s activity level significantly declines
- severe nausea and vomiting
- gestational diabetes
So take care of yourself or the one you love. Pregnancy can be scary and still be a wonderful experience. My sister had preeclampsia and had to have induced labor, but both her and my nephew are now healthy as a horse dragging another horse to the water to get a drink.
pregnancy loss / miscarriage
baby’s activity level significantly declines
severe nausea and vomiting
gestational diabetes
So take care of yourself or the one you love. Pregnancy can be scary and still be a wonderful experience. My sister had preeclampsia and had to have induced labor, but both her and my nephew are now healthy as a horse dragging another horse to the water to get a drink.