At Dental Health and Wellness Boston, we consistently work to bring you the best care for not only your teeth but your entire body. We are proud to be able to work with top medical professionals in Boston to provide comprehensive care for our patients whether they suffer from eating disorders, have pre-existing health conditions or have concerns during pregnancy.
Chief of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center and Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tufts University School of Medicine , Dr. Lucy Bayer-Zwirello, MD, FACOG, FRCSC provides further insights into medical conditions associated with high risk pregnancies.
“To simplify maternal conditions we can separate the issues into pre-existing medical conditions complicating pregnancy (e.g. diabetes), pre-existing surgical conditions (gall bladder disease), prior infertility (IVF), and complications typical of pregnancy caused by the pregnancy itself such as hypertension and pre-eclampsia (a hypertensive disorder only seen in pregnancy also called toxemia), or Gestational Diabetes.
“Pregnancy can herald conditions such as chronic hypertension, and more importantly, conditions such as Lupus (a form of arthritis), ITP (idiopathic thrombocytopenia or low platelets) and other autoimmune diseases may show up for the first time during pregnancy.
“Although cancer is rare in pregnancy, abnormal bleeding, unusual symptoms, tumors and pain can sometimes be symptoms of a cancer. The most common cancers during pregnancy are lymphoma, leukemia, malignant melanoma, cervical and breast cancers. In some instance the cancer will be stimulated by the pregnancy (e.g. breast cancer), but in other cases it is a coincidence and does not progress secondarily to the pregnancy (e.g. cervical cancer).
“Infectious diseases are pure complications of pregnancy; the best example is HIV. A primary infection during pregnancy is very high risk for transmission to the fetus, but as in pre-existing conditions, the risk to the fetus is almost nil if the patient is under treatment and has a negative viral load. More common than HIV is Hepatitis C. There is no treatment or prevention of transmission for Hep C, contrarily to HIV.
“Chicken Pox, Herpes Zoster and Genital Herpes can be treated. Patients should be tested for these viruses and, if available, should use treatment in the third trimester prior to delivery. The list of viral diseases causing pregnancy complications must include CMV (cytomegalovirus), Parvovirus B19 and influenza. If there is a safe vaccine (influenza) it should be given. However, live attenuated vaccines cannot be used (German measles). Some viral diseases can be fatal during pregnancy (Chicken Pox, pneumonia, Influenza) and treatment should be sought immediately to prevent complication.”
