Serious Pregnancy Complications and their Pregnancy Symptoms
These pregnancy complications are considered serious and in some cases, life threatening. If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms that may be indicators of one of these complications, call or visit a doctor immediately.
This pregnancy complication is where the placental lining has separated from the uterus of the mother and usually occurs after the 20th week. It occurs rarely (1%) but the fetus dies 20-40% of the time. It also is a significant contributor to death of the mother.
Pregnancy Symptoms:
· Contractions that don’t stop
· Pain
· Tenderness in the abdomen and (sometimes) bleeding
· Vaginal bleeding in 80% of cases
Causes:
· Hypertension in 44%
· Trauma: Falls, car accidents or assaults
· Drug use: especially tobacco, alcohol and cocaine.
· Pregnant women who are younger than 20 or older than 35 are at greater risk.
Pelvic Girdle Pain
Pregnancy Symptoms:
pelvic joint pain
Causes: the hormones that are involved in pregnancy affect the soft tissues, cartilage and ligaments. They stretch more and excess strain may cause instability and pain.1 in 37 women will experience this to some extent either during pregnancy of after delivery.
For most women, this problem resolves itself in weeks after delivery, but for some this pregnancy symptom can last for years, and result in weakness and reduced ability to perform in weight bearing activities.
Gestational Diabetes
This pregnancy complication is when women who previously did not have diabetes suddenly exhibit high blood glucose levels during pregnancy and are diagnosed as diabetic. This occurs in 3-10% of pregnancies and has no specific cause.
Pregnancy Symptoms:
None – detected by routine screening test during pregnancy
This condition is controllable through diet modification and moderate exercise. Some patients take anti-diabetic drugs or insulin therapy. Women who have gestational diabetes are at high risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes mellitus after pregnancy, and their children are prone to childhood obesity and Type 2 Diabetes later in life.
Risk Factors:
· A family history of type 2 diabetes
· If the mother is over age 35
· African-Americans, North American Natives and Hispanics
· Being overweight or obese
· Having a previous pregnancy with a high birth weight child (greater than the 90th percentile)
HELLP
This is one of the pregnancy complications that is thought to be a variation of pre-eclampsia. Both occur during the third trimester and sometimes even after childbirth. Caucasian women over the age of 25 are at greatest risk.
Pregnancy Symptoms:
· Headaches (30% of women)
· Blurred vision
· Tired and sick feeling (90%)
· Nausea and or vomiting (30%)
· Pain in the upper abdomen (65%)
· Tingling in the extremeties
As rupture of the liver capsule, seizures or coma can occur, it is a good idea to get the necessary blood tests to detect this condition..
Treatment: the only effective known treatment is delivery of the baby. If severe complications occur, emergency surgery may be required.
Pre-Eclampsia
This serious pregnancy complication is when hypertension occurs in pregnancy and there is an excessive amount of protein in the urine. High blood pressure is the most visible sign of the disease, but it involves damage to the kidney and liver as well. It usually occurs in the second or third trimester and in 10% of all pregnancies.
Pre-eclampsia may develop anytime within pregnancy, although most cases are diagnosed pre-pregnancy. There is no known cure, and is the most common of the serious pregnancy complications.
Pregnancy Symptoms:
· Gastric pain which may be confused with heartburn
· Different from heartburn as it does not spread upwards towards the throat and is not relieved by antacids.
· Described as being severely painful
If severe, pre-eclampsia progresses to headaches, HELLP syndrome and eclampsia. Placental abruption is associated with this condition.
Eclampsia
This can occur after the onset of pre-eclampsia and is more serious, carrying a maternal mortality of 1.8%. Cerebral hemorrhage can kill women with pre-eclampsia or eclampsia.
Pregnancy Symptoms:
the same as for pre-eclampsia (above)
Treatments:
The only known treatments for eclampsia are abortions or delivery, either by induction or Caesarean section. Pregnancy information indicates this preventative measure: a woman’s continued exposure to her partner’s semen as early as several years before conception significantly decreased her chances of suffering pre-eclampsia.
Women who used contraceptive barriers has a higher chance of contracting eclampsia. Exposure to the partner’s seminal fluid, both vaginally and orally, for 12 months or more is the only known treatment. This has to do with a woman’s immunological tolerance to her baby’s father, whose genes are in the fetus and may pose a challenge to the mother’s immune system.
Hypertension
Commonly referred to as “high blood pressure”, it has no specific medical cause.
Pregnancy Symptoms:
Systolic blood pressure is 140 or greater, and/or diastolic blood pressure is consistently 80 or higher.
Causes:
· Salt sensitivity – the more salt in a person’s bloodstream, the more water the body takes in, increasing the pressure on the blood vessel walls.
· Too little calcium or potassium
· Sleep apnea
· Genetics – 30% is inherited
Miscarriage
Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the natural end of a pregnancy where the embryo is incapable of surviving, usually before 20 weeks. Miscarriage is the most common pregnancy complication. More the three-quarters occur in the first trimester.
Causes:
· Chromosomal abnormalties are found in more than half of embryos that have miscarried. Most chromosomal problems happen by chance and have nothing to do with the parents. Genetic problems are more likely to occur with older women.
· Polycystic Ovary Syndrome causes 30-50% of pregnancies to miscarry
· High blood pressure, rubella and chlamydia increase the risk
· Cigarette smokers have an increased risk of miscarriage
· Autoimmune diseases greatly increase the risk
· Cocaine use
· Exposure to environmental toxins
· Obesity
· High caffeine intake
· High levels of alcohol consumption
· High fever: 100 Degrees F. or higher
· IUD use during time of conception
· Anti-inflammatory drug intake
· Age: Men older than 40 years – 60% chance of miscarriage
· Age: Women older than 45 years – 75% chance of miscarriage
Pregnancy Symptoms:
Bleeding
If you are having bleeding AND pain, consult your doctor, as you may be having an ectopic pregnancy.
Ectopic Pregnancy
An ectopic pregnancy is when the embryo gets stuck in the Fallopian tube and starts to grow there. It can never be viable and has to be removed.
Symptoms: abdominal pain and bleeding
A healthy pregnancy sign is not having any pain. Personal Experience: I remember when I began having an ectopic pregnancy, I was having a lot of pain. My regular gynecologist admitted me to the hospital all night, giving me morphine hourly, which still didn’t stop the pain.
Still unsure if it could be a miscarriage or not, as apparently tests to determine ectopic pregnancies are difficult to read- I was allowed to go home the next morning, with the instruction that I come in and see him at 4:00 that day.
I was still having the serious pregnancy symptoms of pain and very light bleeding. So I decided to call my fertility doctor that morning, and he told me to have my husband drive me immediately to the hospital. I was bleeding more by then and when we arrived I couldn’t walk.
I asked to go to the bathroom. Because my white sweater was getting full of blood, I was trying to wash the blood out. The doctor said to hurry up and get out of the bathroom! He didn’t even let me take the time to fill out the insurance forms. He had my husband sign a living will and wisked me off to the operating room.
It was an ectopic pregnancy and I almost ruptured, which could have caused my death. If I had waited until 4:00 that afternoon to see my regular gynecologist, I would have died. So please take these things seriously, as they are.
Incidentally, my fertility doctor knew I had been trying for 3 years to get pregnant, so he tried a new method. Instead of sewing the Fallopian tubes together, resulting in more scar tissue and nearly impossible future pregnancies, he just placed the tubes together, with the intention that they would grow together by themselves.
Apparently, it worked, as I was pregnant (naturally) within that year. I know this is anecdotal, but I swear I could feel something on the right side when I got pregnant-and that was the side that had the bad Fallopian tube. To this day, I believe my son’s embryo traveled down that Fallopian tube that had once had the surgery.
Treatment: surgical removal of the embryo. The Fallopian tube can be stitched together or just placed together. If you want to get pregnant again, I suggest asking it be placed together.
You may have to take methotrexate to remove any particles of the embryo that still remain.
Placenta Previa
This pregnancy complication is when the placenta has attached to the uterine wall, occurring in the second or third trimester.
Pregnancy Symptoms:
Painless, bright red, vaginal bleeding after the 24th week
Treatment:
It can be confirmed with an ultrasound and determines if the fetus is in distress. Immediate delivery may be needed in this case. A Ceasarean section may be performed in order to save the mother and child.
Premature Birth
This pregnancy complication is when the baby is born sooner than 37 weeks after the beginning of the last menstrual period. About 12% of babies in the US are born prematurely each year. During the past 2 decades, premature birth has increasd 30% in the US. The earliest age at which the infant has at least a 50% chance of survival is 24 weeks, although rare survivors have been documented as early as 21 weeks.
The shorter the term of pregnancy, the greater the risks of complications. Infants born prematurely have:
· The leading cause of infant mortality: 25%
· Greater risk for cerebral palsy, mental retardation
· Greater risk for chronic lung disease, gastrointestinal problems, vision or hearing loss
· Greater risk for depression as teenagers.
Pregnancy Symptoms:
· 4 or more contraction in one hour, before 37 weeks
· waters break
· menstrual cramps or abdominal pain
· vaginal spotting or bleeding
Risk Factors:
· Nearly half have no known cause
· High blood pressure
· Pregnancy symptoms of pre-eclampsia
· Mother is over age 35 or under age 18
· Short cervix
· Maternal diabetes
· Anxiety
· Periodontal Disease
· Multiple pregnancies
· Women who have tried to conceive for more than a year before getting pregnant have a 40% higher risk or premature birth.
· Use of tobacco and alcohol
Preventions:
Eating a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol
Taking fish oil supplements
Self-monitoring of vaginal PH level followed by yogurt treatment
Uterine Rupture
This is a catastrophic event usually during childbirth but may occur during late pregnancy.
Risks:
A uterine scar from a previous cesarean section is the most common factor.
Pregnancy Symptoms:
May be subtle at first, but abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding.
Often the fetus’s heart rate is a leading sign.
Abdominal bleeding on the inside can lead to shock and death.
Treatments:
Emergency exploratory surgery with cesarean delivery and blood transfusions. Depending on the nature of the rupture and the condition of the patient, the uterus may be repaired or removed (hysterectomy).
