Explain About the High Risk Pregnancies?

Until now we have considered the nutritional needs of pregnant women. In this sub-section, we will consider specific conditions that contribute to high-risk pregnancies.  Health care professionals favour health promotion with a preventive approach. Various factors have been identified which are associated with high risk. They are summarized in the Table. Some of these, you will realize cannot be changed as in case of personal characteristics and some can be changed, some are preventable and others can be controlled.

Some problems are directly related to the pregnancy itself such as anaemia, hyper emesis gravidarum (extreme form of morning sickness) or pregnancy-induced hypertension.  For some, the normal physiological stress imposes demands on a relatively poor maternal nutritional status or maternal reserves that are not sufficient to meet the new additional needs. Pre-existing diseases such as diabetes, chronic hypertension or phenylketonuria also pose risks. Hence, it is important to pay attention to such mothers. Adequate nutrition and consistent prenatal care can reduce the risk of premature delivery or low birth weight babies. High-risk pregnancies need special management including intervention to correct malnutrition.