When you’re embarking on a journey as important as pregnancy, you may not be too happy about having the label high-risk attached.
Of the millions of pregnancies each year in the United States, only about 6% to 8% are considered high risk, which comes out to between 30,000 and 50,000 pregnancies.
And we want to point out that many of these high-risk categorizations are simply cautionary and by no means imply that trouble is imminent.
To give you a better idea about what it means to embark on a high-risk pregnancy and how we treat that from our end, the team of pregnancy experts here at Capital Women’s Care pulled together some useful information below.
There are many reasons why we might classify a pregnancy as high risk, which means there are conditions that might be harmful to the fetus and/or the mother, some of which are out of your control, such as:
Of the nearly 3.7 million live births in the United States in 2022, a little more than 4% of these were to women under the age of 20 and 50% were to women in their 30s and 40s. So, on age alone, many women are classified as high-risk and go on to deliver perfectly healthy babies.
There are also some lifestyle considerations that can place you into the high-risk group, such as smoking, drinking, and drug use.
Preexisting health conditions are also a major driver of high-risk pregnancies, such as women who have:
Lastly, women can start their pregnancies with low risk, but develop an issue during pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes or preeclampsia, that compels us to recategorize their pregnancy.
Our standard of care is high for any pregnancy, but we typically monitor high-risk pregnancies more closely. This might be as simple as increasing your number of prenatal care visits so we can keep a closer eye on your pregnancy.
If you have a preexisting health condition that might be of concern, we coordinate your care with your primary care provider.
If a lifestyle choice has placed you in the high-risk category, we work with you on making some smart health choices, such as quitting tobacco, alcohol, and/or drugs.
If we’re concerned about the health of your unborn child, we might monitor their health more closely with blood and urine testing and more frequent ultrasounds.
Ultimately, it’s difficult to say here what exactly your high-risk prenatal care would entail, as everyone’s situation is different. We view each high-risk pregnancy as unique, and we customize a prenatal plan that fits your set of circumstances and challenges.
To learn more about our prenatal care for high-risk pregnancies, please call one of our offices in Frederick, Urbana, and Mount Airy, Maryland, at 301-663-6171. Or, you can request an appointment using our online form.
