High Risk Pregnancy
High Risk Pregnancy
A high-risk pregnancy is a pregnancy that involves increased health risks for the pregnant person, unborn baby or both. Certain health conditions and your age (being over 35 or under 17 when pregnant) can make a pregnancy high risk. These pregnancies require close monitoring to reduce the chance of complications.
What causes high-risk pregnancy?
Factors that make a pregnancy high risk include:
- Preexisting health conditions.
- Pregnancy-related health conditions.
- Lifestyle factors (including smoking, drug addiction, alcohol abuse and exposure to certain toxins).
- Age (being over 35 or under 17 when pregnant).
What are the signs and symptoms of high-risk pregnancy?
- Abdominal pain that doesn’t go away.
- Chest pain.
- Dizziness or fainting.
- Extreme fatigue.
- Your unborn baby’s movement stopping or slowing.
- Fever over 100.4°F.
- Heart palpitations.
- Nausea and vomiting that’s worse than normal morning sickness.
- Severe headache that won’t go away or gets worse.
- Swelling, redness or pain in your face or limbs.
- Thoughts about harming yourself or your unborn baby.
- Trouble breathing.
- Vaginal bleeding or discharge.
