Premature rupture of membranes (PROM)
🤰Symptoms
When you deliver your baby👶, membranes rupture, the amniotic sac🌊 that surrounds your baby breaks and flows out. While rupture of membrane is a normal phenomenon during labor, if it happens too early, it can cause serious complications for the fetus.
🤰Treatment
When PROM occurs at 34 weeks or more and the amniotic fluid shows that the lungs of your baby have matured enough, doctors may recommend you to deliver the baby👶 because possible signs of infection can lead to more serious complications.🩺
The risks associated with prematurity diminishes significantly as the fetus is reaching the due date. When your baby comes out early, your little one will be intensively taken care of by nursery services and stay healthy.😃
Problems with placenta
🤰Placenta previa
If you have placenta previa, you will notice bright red, profuse, and painless vaginal bleeding.🩸 It often occurs after the 28th week of pregnancy and is detected by ultrasound.🩺 Since the placenta abnormally comes out first and blocks the opening to the cervix, the doctor usually suggests cesarean delivery.👩⚕️
If labor is unstoppable and the baby is in distress, you and your baby are in life-threatening hemorrhage, immediate cesarean delivery is conducted despite the fetus’ age.⚠️ If the bleeding is under control and the labor can be postponed, the doctor👩⚕️ will try to prolong your pregnancy days to let your baby have more time to fully develop.
🤰Placental abruption
This is a rare condition in which the placenta detaches from the uterus prior to labor. It can result in fetal death and cause serious bleeding🩸 and shock in the mother.
Sometimes placental abruption doesn’t always show harbingers, but some moms experience heavy bleeding and strong contractions.👩 The doctor can evaluate your symptoms and the baby’s heartbeat💓 to determine fetal distress and rapidly conduct cesarean delivery if necessary.
Post-term pregnancy
🤰Post-term pregnancy
Any pregnancy lasting longer than 42 weeks is considered post-term or post-date pregnancy. Although it’s not dangerous to the mother, it can cause some problems to the baby.👶
Since the placenta is designed to effectively function in 40 weeks, starting from week 41, the placenta is less likely to work well.🙁 Decreased amniotic fluid around the fetus, decreased oxygen supply to the fetus, compression of the umbilical cord are reflected on the fetal heart monitor in a pattern called late decelerations. Fetal death can be one of the possible outcomes when the pregnancy is post-term.😢
🤰Meconium aspiration syndrome
Meconium is your newborn’s first poop.🚻 Most fetuses that have this first bowel movement inside the uterus have no problems.
However, if your stressed fetus inhales the meconium, your baby may have trouble breathing because the meconium is stuck in the lungs.😮💨 Doctors will have to clear the airways as much as possible for your baby to breathe.
Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR)
🤰Symptoms
IUGR refers to abnormal growth when your baby in the womb👶 does not grow as much as expected to a certain age. There are two main types of IUGR. Symmetrical IUGR indicates that all parts of the baby’s body are similarly small in size, while asymmetrical IUGR means the baby’s head and brain are normal-sized but the body is smaller.
🤰Treatment
Ultrasound🩺 is done over and over again to determine whether the fetus is small for gestational age. IUGR babies tend to have less body fat and be less able to tolerate stress of labor and maintain body temperature and body glucose after birth.
If your baby stops growing in the womb, the doctor may recommend induction or cesarean delivery. Luckily, most growth-restricted babies will catch up their growth by two years old and develop healthily afterwards.😃