Factors that leads to High Risk Pregnancy and how to diagnose these risk factors.

1. HIGH RISK PREGNANCY
Factors and How To Diagnose.

2. High Risk Pregnancy:
• Is one of greater risk to the mother or her fetus than an uncomplicated pregnancy.
• Pregnancy places additional physical and emotional stress on the woman’s body.
• Is defined as a pregnancy that is complicated by a condition or disorder that may affect the mother
and/or fetus during pregnancy, during labour or during fetal life.

3. Factors that put a pregnancy at risk:
 Maternal age (<18yrs, 35yrs<)
 Maternal (pre-pregnant) weight (<55kg, 85kg<) -Obesity
 Smoking and/or alcohol use
 Single mom (stress and/or depression)
 HTN , Gestational Diabetes, Maternal Heart Problems
 Pre-eclampsia
 Multiple births (twins)
 PCOS (over 42wks)
 Abnormal previous gestation: miscarriage/ post-term/ abortion/ still-birth/ neonatal
death
 Thyroid disease
 HIV/AIDS
 Small pelvis
 Uterine malformations

4. Diagnosis:
 Ultrasound and FBC (blood tests) are often part of routine prenatal care and sometimes help
determine whether more invasive genetic tests are needed.
• Amniocentesis
• Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS)
• Percutaneous Umbilical Blood Sampling (PUBS)a.k.a Cordocentesis
• These tests are most often offered for the following reasons:
• Maternal age >35 at time of expected delivery
• Fetal birth anomalies seen on an early ultrasound examination.
• An elevated risk for chromosome abnormalities from a 1st trimester screening test.
• Family history of genetic disorders.

5. Amniocentesis:
• Procedure involves extracting amniotic fluid from the amniotic-fluid-sac using a very thin needle
under continuous ultrasound guidance.
• Check for any chromosomal abnormalities. (trisomy 21, etc.)

6. Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS)
• Procedure involves placing a very thin catheter through the cervix to obtain a small amount of
placental tissue, also under continuous ultrasound guidance.
• Just to determine if there is any chromosome abnormalities.

7. Percutaneous Umbilical Blood Sampling (PUBS) -Cordocentesis
 Procedure involves obtaining a small sample of fetal blood from the umbilical vein of the
umbilical cord using a very thin neddle.
 Is usually performed IF diagnostic information cannot be obtained via the two previous
discussed test methods.
 Procedure is SIMILAR to amniocentesis, except the objective is to retrieve blood directly from
the fetus (via umbilical cord) versus amniotic fluid.

8. Goals of care:
o Provide optimum care for the mother as well as for the growing fetus.
o Assist the patient & her family to understand and cope with the variations in a High Risk
Pregnancy and cope with her feelings.

9. References:
• Gerard J. Tortora, principles of anatomy & physiology, 14th Edition.
• Davidson’s Principle and Practice of Medicine, 21st Edition.
• www.hi-roc.com
THE END!!
Marau Jiko Taci…sa malo