IF you are planning to get pregnant and need advice especially if you have a pre-existing medical condition. You will need to see a maternal fetal medicine specialist to get appropriate counselling before embarking on the journey.
Before you get pregnant, there are certain things you have to do to reduce the risks that may come with pregnancy. You will, first, need to stabilise you pre-pregnancy diseases to optimises your condition before embarking on the journey.
Then, you need to change medications, which are safe for your pregnancy. Finally, you will need to ensure you are in the pink of health to reduce chances of facing complications.
Your doctor will usually take a full history of your medical problems and do a relevant physical examination – they may also run other necessary tests. They will keep check of your medication and pre-pregancy diseases and their nature, should you have any.
Your pre-pregnancy diseases may affect your journey and the complications that may follow. The risks are lowest when the diseases are stable and under control. They may also bring risks to your unborn baby, that is why it is important to control the illnesses.
During pregnancy, the normal physiology in a woman changes to adapt. This would affect the diseases through hormonal changes and may affect the medication that you are taking. In most cases, a pregnant woman’s blood volume may increase by 50%, so the medication may also have to be increased accordingly, based on the increasing gestation of the pregnancy.
In some diseases, the physiological changes may help with controlling the diseases. For instance, a lot of patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematous will usually improve with the increasing pregnancy steroid in the body. However, they may suffer a relapse after the pregnancy due to the reduction of these hormones.
The medications that you are taking may also affect your pregnancy and your unborn foetus. Hence, the medications should be able to manage the diseases and be safe to mother and foetus.
In some cases where the medications have a narrow range of efficacy, drug levels need to be taken to ensure there is enough of the medications to control the diseases. In other situations, hormone levels or other markers of the diseases need to be monitored regularly to optimise the medications as well as the control of the diseases before complications set in.
It is therefore important you see all the necessary doctors regularly after you become pregnant to keep the diseases under control. In most government hospitals, they have a combined clinic where a medical specialist will be seated with an obstetric specialist or a maternal fetal medicine specialist.
They will consult you together and after assessing, examining and discussing with the patient, they will then provide the necessary treatment. In most private centres, there are no combined clinics, where the medical physician and the obstetrician will share the management of your condition with regular discussions via phone or physically, when possible.
Ultimately all doctors try to provide the best care for their patients via discussions among themselves and with the patient for the best outcomes.
It is therefore important to go for a pre-pregnancy clinic first. Then control your diseases with the appropriate medications – only then should you embark on the pregnancy. Once pregnant, you need to be closely monitored by these doctors to get the best outcome.
This article is contributed by consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, maternal fetal medicine Datuk Dr H. Krishna Kumar.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Planning for happy outcomes )
Also on site :
- Texas Floods Claim at Least 104 Lives, Including 27 From Camp Mystic, as Search Continues
- Apple Loses Leading AI Models Exec as Meta Ramps Up Hiring
- Meta Recruits Apple’s Senior AI Models Leader in Talent Push