General knowledge of medical.

31/08/2024

Fetal Growth Restriction (part 1)
1. What is fetal growth restriction(FGR)
- Fetal growth restriction is a condition in which an unborn baby (fetus) is smaller than expected for the number of weeks of pregnancy (gestational age). It is often described as an estimated weight less than the 10th percentile. This means the baby weighs less than 9 out of 10 babies of the same gestational age. Newborn babies with FGR may be called “small for gestational age”.
- FGR can begin at any time during pregnancy. With FGR, the baby does not grow well. FGR may affect the overall size of the baby and the growth of organs, tissues, and cells. This can cause many problems. But many small newborns may just be small. They may not have any problems.
2. What causes FGR?
- Many things increase the risk for FGR. These include problems with the placenta or umbilical cord. The placenta may not attach well. Or the blood flow through the umbilical cord may be limited. Factors in both the mother and the baby may cause FGR.
- Factors in the mother that can cause FGR include:
+ High blood pressure or other heart and blood vessel disease.
+ Diabetes
+ Too few red blood cells (anemia)
+ Long-term lung or kidney conditions
+ Autoimmune conditions such as lupus
+ Deficient weight
+ A large amount of excess weight (obese)
+ Poor nutrition or weight gain
+ Alcohol or drug use
+ Cigarette smoking
- Factors in the baby that can cause FGR include:
+ Being one of the twin or triplets
+ Inflections
+ Birth defects, such as heart defects,...
+ Problem with genes or chromosomes.
3.What are the symtoms of FGR?
- A pregnant woman doesn't have symptoms of FGR. But a baby with FGR may have certain signs after birth, such as:
+ Low birth weight
+ Low blood sugar level
+ Lower body temperature
+ High level of red blood cells
+ Trouble fighting infections.

29/11/2022

NUTRITION DURING PREGNANCY
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends the following keys components of a healthy lifestyle during pregnancy:
- Appropriate weight gain
- A balanced diet
- Regular exercise
- Appropriate and timely vitamin and mineral supplementation.
Dietary and Caloric recommendations.
- To maintain a healthy pregnancy, approximately 300 extra calories are needed each day. These calories should come from a balanced diet of protein, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Sweets and fats should be kept to a minimum. A healthy, well-balanced diet can also help reduce pregnancy symptoms, such as nausea and constipation.
Fluid intake during pregnancy
- Fluid intake is also an essential part of pregnancy nutrition. Follow these recommendations for fluid intake during pregnancy:
+ You can take in enough fluids by drinking several glasses of water each day, in addition to the fluids in juices and soups. Talk to your healthcare provider or midwife about restricting your intake of caffeine and artificial sweeteners.
+ Avoid all forms of alcohol.
Ideal foods to eat during pregnancy
- The following foods are beneficial to your health and fetal development during pregnancy:
+ Vegetables: carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, spinach, cooked greens, tomatoes, and red sweet peppers (for vitamin A and potassium).
+ Fruits: cantaloupe, honeydew, mangoes, prunes, bananas, apricots, oranges, and red or pink grapefruit (for potassium).
+ Dairy: fat-free or low-fat yogurt, skim or 1% milk, soymilk (for calcium, potassium, vitamins A and D).
+ Grains: ready-to-est cereals/cooked cereals ( for iron and folic acid).
+ Proteins: beans and peas, nuts and seeds, lean beef, lamb and pork, salmon, trout, herring, sardines, and po***ck.
Foods to avoid during pregnancy
Avoid eating the following foods during pregnancy:
+ Unpasteurized milk and foods made with unpasteurized milk(soft cheeses, including feta, queso Blanco and fresco,..)
+ Hot dogs and luncheon meats (unless they are heated until steaming hot before serving).
+ Raw and undercooked seafood. Eggs and meat. Do not eat sushi made with raw fish
+ Refrigerated pate and meat spreads
+ Refrigerated smoked seafood.
Guidelines for safe food handling
Follow these general food safety guidelines when handling and cooking food:
+ Wash: rinse all raw produce thoroughly under running tap water before eating, cutting, or cooking.
+ Clean: wash your hands, knives, countertops, and cutting boards after handling and preparing under-cooked foods.
+ Cook: cook beef, pork, and poultry to a safe internal temperature verified by a food thermometer.
+ Chill: promptly refrigerate all perishable food.
Prenatal vitamin and mineral supplements
- Most healthcare providers or midwives will prescribe a prenatal supplement before conception or shortly afterward to make sure that all of your nutrition needs are met. However, a prenatal supplement does not replace a healthy diet.
The importance of folic acid
The U.S. Public Health Service recommends that all women of childbearing age consume 400 micrograms of folic acid each day. Folic acid is a nutrient found in:
+ Some green leafy vegetables
+ Most berries, nuts, beans, citrus fruits, and fortified breakfast cereals.
+ Some vitamin supplements.
Folic acid can help reduce the risk of neural tube defects, which are birth defects of the brain and spinal cord. Neural tube defects can lead to varying degrees of paralysis, incontinence, and sometimes intellectual disability.
Folic acid is the most helpful during the first 28 days after conception when most neural tube defects occur. Unfortunately, you may not realize that you are pregnant before 28 days. Therefore, your intake of folic acid should begin before conception and continue throughout your pregnancy. Your health care provider or midwife will recommend the appropriate amount of folic to meet your individual needs.

25/04/2022

22/01/2022

Treatment for tuberculosis disease.
When TB bacteria become active and the immune system can't stop the bacteria from growing, this is called TB disease. TB disease will make a person sick. People with TB disease may spread the bacteria to people with whom they spend many hours.
It is very important that people who have TB disease are treated, finish the medicine, and take the drugs exactly as prescribed. If they stop taking the drugs too soon, they can become sick again, if they do not take the drug correctly, the TB bacteria that are still alive may become resistant to those drugs. TB that is resistant to drugs is harder and more expensive to treat.
TB disease can be treated by taking several drugs for 6 to 9 months. There are 10 drugs currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration(FDA) for treating TB. Of the approved drugs, the first-line anti-TB agents that form the core of treatment regimens are isoniazid(INH), rifampin(RIF). ethambutol(EMB), pyrazinamide(PZA).
Regimens for treating Tb disease have an intensive phase of 2 months, followed by a continuation phase of either 4 or 7 months(total of 6 to 9 months for treatment). Note: pyridoxine (vitamin B6), 25-50mg/day, is given with INH to all persons at risk of neuropathy (e.g: pregnant women, breastfeeding infants, the person with HIV, patients with diabetes, alcoholism, malnutrition, or chronic renal failure, or patients with advanced age). For patients with peripheral neuropathy, experts recommend increasing the pyridoxine dose to 100mg/day.
- Continuation Phase of treatment is given for either 4 or 7 months. The 4-month continuation phase should be used in most patients. The 7-moth continuation phase is recommended only for the following groups:
+ Patients with cavity pulmonary TB caused by drug-susceptible organisms and whose sputum culture obtained at the time of completion of 2 months of treatment if positive
+ Patients whose intensive phase of treatment did not include PZA
+ Patients with HIV who are not receiving antiretroviral treatment during TB treatment,
+ Patients being treated with once-weekly INH and rifampin and whose sputum culture obtained at the time of completion of the intensive phase is positive.
- Treatment Completion is determined by the number of doses ingested over a given period.

19/01/2022

WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO TUBERCULOSIS
You may have been exposed to TB bacteria if you spent time near someone with TB disease. The TB bacteria are put into the air when a person with active TB disease of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes, speaks, or sings. You cannot get TB from:
- Clothes
- drinking glass
- Eating utensils
- Handshake
- Toilet
- Other surfaces
If you think you have been exposed to someone with TB disease, you should contact your doctor or local health department about getting a TN skin test or a special test. Be sure to tell the doctor or nurse when you spent time with the person who has TB disease.
It is important to know that a person who is exposed to TB bacteria is not able to spread the bacteria to other people right away. Only persons with active TB disease can spread TB bacteria to others. Before you would be able to spread TB to others, you would have to breathe in TB bacteria and become infected. Then the active bacteria would have to multiply in your body and cause active Tb disease. At this point, you could spread Tb bacteria to others. People with TB disease are most likely to spread the bacteria to people they spend time with every day, such as family members, friends, coworkers, or schoolmates.
In most people who have inhaled the bacteria, the immune system immediately kicks in and you recover without further signs of the disease. Or the bacteria may then remain in a latent, or dormant, state - it is in your system, but not making you sick. But in some cases, the bacteria eventually reactivate and multiply, leading to the active form of TB, when it makes the person symptomatic and contagious.
Latent TB should not be ignored, though, because the disease can become active at any time if your immune system gets weakened. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), about 5 to 10 percent of people infected with latent TB develop active TB at some point in their lives if they don't receive treatment.

16/01/2022

Tuberculosis (TB) Vaccines
- TB Vaccine (BCG)
Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is a vaccine for tuberculosis disease. This vaccine is not widely used in the United States, but it is often given to infants and small children in other countries where TB is common. BCG does not always protect people from getting TB.
- BCG recommendations: In the United States, BCG should be considered for only very select who meet specific criteria and in consultation with a TB expert. Health care providers who are considering BCG vaccination for their patients are encouraged to discuss this intervention with the TB control program in their area.
- Children: BCG vaccination should only be considered for children who have a negative TB test and who are continually exposed, and cannot be separated from adults who
+ are untreated or ineffectively treated for TB disease, and the child cannot be given long-term primary treatment for TB infection, or
+ Have TB disease caused by strains resistant to isoniazid and rifampin
- Health Care Workers: BCG vaccination of health care workers should be considered on an individual basis in a setting in which
+ a high percentage of TB patients are infected with TB strains resistant to both isoniazid and rifampin;
+ there is ongoing transmission of drug-resistant TB strains to health care workers and subsequent infection is likely, or
+ comprehension TB infection-control precautions have been implemented, but have not been successful.
Health care workers considered for BCG vaccination should be counseled regarding the risks and benefits associated with both BCG vaccination and treatment of latent TB infection.
- Testing for TB in BCG-vaccinated people
Many people born outside of the United States have been BCG-vaccinated.
People who were previously vaccinated with BCG may receive a TB skin test for TB infection. Vaccination with BCG may cause a positive reaction to a TB skin test. A positive reaction to a TB skin test may be due to the BCG vaccine itself or due to infection with TB bacteria.
- TB blood tests, unlike the TB skin test, are not affected by prior BCG vaccination and are not expected to give a false-positive result in people who have received BCG.
For children under the age of five, the skin test is preferred over TB blood tests. A positive TB skin test or TB blood test only tells that a person has been infected with TB bacteria. It does not tell whether the person has latent TB infection or has progressed to TB disease. Other tests, such as a chest x-ray and a sample of sputum, are needed to see whether the person has TB disease.

07/12/2021

BEFORE PREGNANCY
If you are trying to have a baby or are just thinking about it, it is too not early to start getting ready for pregnancy. Preconception health and health care focus on things you can do before and between pregnancies t increase the chances of having a healthy baby. For some women, getting their bodies ready for pregnancy takes a few months. For other mothers, it might take longer. Whether this is your first, second, third, or sixth baby, the following are important steps to help you get ready for the healthiest pregnancy possible.
1. Make a plan and take action
- Whether or not you've written them down, you've probably thought about your goals for having children, and how to achieve those goals. For example, when you didn't want to have a baby, you used effective birth control methods to achieve your goals.
2. See your doctor
- Before getting pregnant, talk to your doctor about preconception health care. Your doctor will want to discuss your health history and any medical conditions you currently have that could affect a pregnancy. He or she also will discuss any previous pregnancy problems, medicines that you currently are taking, vaccinations that you might need, are steps you can take before pregnancy to prevent certain birth defects.
If your doctor has not talked with you about this type of care-ask about it! Take a list of talking points so you don't forget anything.
Be sure to talk to your doctor about:
+ Medical conditions: If you currently have any medical conditions, be sure they are under control and being treated. Some of these conditions include sexually transmitted disease, diabetes, thyroid disease, high blood pressure, and other chronic diseases.
+ Lifestyle and behaviors: Talk with your doctor or another health professional if you smoke, drink alcohol, or use certain drugs, live in a stressful or abusive environment, or work with or live around toxic substances. Health care professionals can help you with counseling treatment, and other support services.
+ Medications: Taking certain medicines during pregnancy can cause serious birth defects. These include some prescription and over-the-counter medications and dietary or herbal supplements. If you are planning a pregnancy, you should discuss the need for any medication with your doctor before becoming pregnant and make sure you are taking only those medications that are necessary.
People may use opioids as prescribed, may misuse prescription opioids, may use illicit opioids such as he**in, or may use opioids as part of medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. If a woman is pregnant or planning to become pregnant, the first thing she should do is talk to a healthcare provider. Some women need to take an opioid medication during pregnancy to manage pain or to treat opioid use disorder. Creating a treatment plan for opioid use disorder, as well as other co-occurring health conditions, before pregnancy can help a woman increase her chances of a pregnancy.
+ Vaccinations: Some vaccinations are recommended before you become pregnant, during pregnancy, or right after delivery. Having the right vaccinations at the right time can help keep you healthy and help keep your baby from getting sick or having lifelong health problems.
3. Take 400 micrograms of folic acid every day.
Folic acid is a vitamin B. If a woman has enough folic acid in her body at least 1 month before and during pregnancy, it can help prevent major birth defects of the baby's brain and spine.
4. Stop drinking alcohol, smoking, and using certain drugs.
- Smoking, drinking alcohol, and using certain drugs can cause many problems during pregnancy for a woman and her babies, such as premature birth, birth effects, and infant death.
If you are trying to get pregnant and cannot stop drinking, smoking, or using drugs, you should contact your doctor or local treatment center.
5. Avoid toxic substances and environmental contaminants
Avoid harmful chemicals, environmental contaminants, and other toxic substances such as synthetic chemicals, metals, fertilizer, bug spray, and cat or rodent f***s around the home and in the workplace. These substances can hurt the reproductive systems of men and women. They can make it more difficult to get pregnant. Exposure to even small amounts during pregnancy, infancy, childhood, or puberty can lead to diseases. Learn how to protect yourself and your loved ones from toxic substances at work and at home.
6. Reach and maintain a healthy weight
People who are overweight or obese have a higher risk for many serious conditions, including complications during pregnancy heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon). People who are underweight are also at risk for serious health problems.
The key to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight isn't about short-term dietary changes. It's about a lifestyle that includes healthy eating and regular physical activity.
If you are underweight, overweight, or obese, talk with your doctor about ways to reach and maintain a healthy weight before you get pregnant.
7. Get help for Violence
- Violence can lead to injury and death among women at any stage of life, including during pregnancy. The number of violent deaths experienced by women tells only part of the story. Many more survive violence and are left with lifelong physical and emotional scars.
If someone is violent toward you or you are violent toward your loved ones - get help- Violence destroys relationships and families.
8. Learn your family history.
- Collecting your family's health history can be important for your child's health. You might not realize that your sister's heart defect or your cousin's sickle cell disease could affect your child, but sharing this family history information with your doctor can be important.
Other reasons people go for genetic counseling include having had several miscarriages infant deaths, trouble getting pregnant, or a genetic condition or birth defect that occurred during a previous pregnancy.
9. Get mentally healthy
- Mental health is how we think, feel, and act as we cope with life. To be at your best, you need to feel good about your life and value yourself. Everyone feels worried, anxious, sad, or stressed sometimes. However, if these feelings do not go away and they interfere with your daily life, get help. Talk with your doctor or another health professional about your feelings and treatment options.
10. Have a healthy pregnancy!
- Once you are pregnant, be sure to keep up all of your new healthy habits and see your doctor regularly throughout pregnancy for prenatal care.

01/11/2021

BEST FOOD TO EAT FOR COLLAGEN BOOST
“You are what you eat” plays an important role in our life. If you need a good brain, you have to eat; if you need a healthy functioning body, you have to eat. Similarly, if you want good skin, you have to eat it because it increases collagen, which keeps your skin healthy. Collagen is protein present in our body responsible for giving the skin its stretch, structure and elasticity. We produce three kinds of collagen in our body, but as we start aging the collagen growth starts reducing.Wrinkles, skin thinning, dullness all begin to appear because if low collagen levels in the body.Collagen makes your skin look fresh, glowing, and healthy. It reduces the sags and drowsiness of skin and prevents it from excess sun exposure.
The question is why use supplements and drugs to increase your collagen level when you can do it naturally by eating beneficial foods? Let's take a look at the foods that boost your collagen. Most of the collagen supplements are originated from chicken. The reason is that the most eaten white meat worldwide contains an enormous amount of collagen. It includes a lot of connective tissues, which make it a rich source of dietary collagen. Chicken neck and cartilage are also used for treating arthritis with collagen treatment. Oceanic collagen gets easily absorbed in the body. The bones and ligaments of fish and shellfish are made of collagen, which is very beneficial for your skin. Salmon and tuna can contribute more to collagen intake. Egg don't have connective tissues to make collagen but white parts of the egg contain the amino acid mandatory to create collagen.Vitamin C acts as a body precursor to collagen and plays an essential role in collagen production. Citrus food are full of vitamin C that can be beneficial for your collagen boost. Orange, lemons, grapefruit, and limes contain a rich amount of vitamin C and will make your skin youthful. Not only citrus fruits but berries are also a rich source of vitamin C and even better. Strawberries can be more beneficial than oranges in developing vitamin C. Raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries are an excellent source of antioxidants that keep the skin protected from harm.
Zinc is also a component used in the manufacturing of collagen, and guavas are rich in zinc. Along with guava, fruits like mango, kiwi, and pineapple are tropical fruits that are rich in vitamin C and add to the dietary collagen supply. Garlic contains a high amount of sulfur which acts as a synthetic and curbs the breakdown of collagen. It is not only used for flavoring but also to boost your collagen. But you can't expect to eat little garlic and get a lot of collagen. The number of consumption matters, but you have to be careful not to eat it too much as excess can be harmful. Did you know what collagen was and why it is beneficial for us?
I hope you can gained knowledge about collagen and the foods which promote collagen growth in our body.

24/09/2021

WHY ARE BABIES BORN EARLY?
Most babies are born healthy at or near their due date. Sometimes, though, babies are born early and might have health problems.
Babies born before 37 weeks are premature. Premature birth is more likely to happen when a mother has a health problem like diabetes- or does harmful things during her pregnancy like smoke or drink. If she lives with a lot of stress, that also can make her baby be born too early.
Many things can cause a baby to be born early or with health problems. Some of these things can be controlled, but others can't.
Here's what you can do to have a healthy pregnancy. During pregnancy, help your baby grow strong and healthy. Be sure to:
- Start prenatal care as soon as you think you're pregnant. Prenatal care is the health care that you get during pregnancy. All pregnant women should see a health care professional as soon as they think they're pregnant and should plan regular prenatal visits throughout pregnancy.
- Get health problems treated. It's best to have any health problems(like diabetes. Depression, or high blood pressure) under control before becoming pregnant. But if you don't, talk to your doctor right away about a treatment plan.
- Eat a healthy diet. It's important to eat a variety of healthy foods before and during pregnancy. Take a prenatal vitamin to be sure you're getting enough folic acid, iron, and other important nutrients.
- Gain the right amount of weight. How much weight you should gain depends on how much you weighed before you were pregnant. Most women who are at a healthy weight should gain about 25 to 35 pounds during pregnancy. Overweight women should probably gain less.
- Don't smoke, drink alcohol, or take illegal drugs. Staying away from to***co, alcohol, and drugs can help you and your baby avoid many serious health problems, like fetal alcohol syndrome and neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). If you do any of these things, get help to quit.
- Wait at least 12 months between pregnancies.
Increasing the time between pregnancies may lower the chances of preterm birth, especially if you had a premature baby before.
+ Things you can't control during pregnancy
Some things that may increase the chances of premature birth are out of your control. This doesn't mean that your baby will be born sick or too early. Remember, most babies are born healthy.
Here are some things you can't control during pregnancy :
- Your age: Mothers who are 17 or younger or 35 or older are more likely to have a premature baby. Teen moms are more likely to get high blood pressure during pregnancy and less likely to get the health care they need. Older women are more likely to have health problems before they get pregnant.
- The number of babies: The chances of having a premature baby go up if the mother is pregnant with twins, triplets, or more. More than half of all twins are born early.
- Your health: Moms with problems like diabetes, depression, or high blood pressure may need to see their health care professional more often to keep these conditions under control.
- Problems with an earlier pregnancy: A woman who has had a previous early delivery, or a baby born with health problems or a birth defect, is more likely to have problems in future pregnancies too.
- Other factors: It's not clear why, but black women are more likely to have premature babies than white and Hispanic women.
If you are pregnant or are planning to be, talk with your health care professional. Women who get regular prenatal care are more likely to have a healthier pregnancy and baby.

10/09/2021

High Blood Pressure During Pregnancy
Some women have high blood pressure during pregnancy. This can put the mother and her baby at risk of problems during the pregnancy. High blood pressure can also cause problems during and after delivery. The good news is that high blood pressure is preventable and treatable.
High blood pressure, also called hypertension, is very common. In the United States, high blood pressure happens in 1 in every 12 to 17 pregnancies among women ages 20 to 44.
High blood pressure in pregnancy has become more common. However, with good blood pressure control, you and your baby are more likely to stay healthy.
The most important thing to do is talk with your health care team about any blood pressure problems so you can get the right treatment and control your blood pressure- before you get pregnant. Getting treatment for high blood pressure is important before, during, and after pregnancy.
1. What are high blood pressure complications during pregnancy?
- Complications from high blood pressure for the mother and infant can include the following:
+ For the mother: preeclampsia, eclampsia, stroke, the need for labor induction(giving medicine to start labor to give birth), and placental abruption(the placenta separating from the wall of the uterus).
+ For the baby: preterm delivery ( birth that happens before 37 weeks of pregnancy) and low birth weight(when a baby is born, weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces). The mother's high blood pressure makes it more difficult for the baby to get enough oxygen and nutrients to grow, so the mother may have to deliver the baby early.
2. What should you do if you have high blood pressure before, during, or after pregnancy?
- Before pregnancy
+ Make a plan for pregnancy and talk with your doctor or health care team about the following.
* Any health problems you have or had any medicines you are taking. If you are planning to become pregnant, talk to your doctor. Your doctor or health care team can help you find drugs that are safe to take during pregnancy.
* Ways to keep a healthy weight through healthy eating and regular physical activity.
- During pregnancy
+ Get early and regular prenatal care. Go to every appointment with your doctor or health care professional.
+ Take to your doctor about any medicines you take and which ones are safe. Do not stop or start taking any type of medicine, including over-the-counter medicines, without first talking with your doctor.
+ Keep track of your blood pressure at home with a home blood pressure monitor. Contact your doctor if your blood pressure is higher than usual or if you have symptoms of preeclampsia. Talk to your doctor or insurance company about getting a home monitor.
+ Continue to choose healthy foods and keep a healthy weight.
- After Pregnancy.
+ Pay attention to how you feel after you give birth. If you had high blood pressure during pregnancy, you have a higher risk for stroke and other problems after delivery. Tell your doctor or call the emergency number right away if you have symptoms of preeclampsia after delivery. You might need emergency medical care.
3. What are types of high blood pressure conditions before, during, after pregnancy?
- Chronic Hypertension: Chronic hypertension means having high blood pressure before you get pregnant or before 20 weeks of pregnancy. Women who have chronic hypertension can also get preeclampsia in the second or third trimester of pregnancy.
- Gestational Hypertension: This condition happens when you only have high blood pressure during pregnancy and do not have protein in your urine or other heart or kidney problems. It is typically diagnosed after 20 weeks of pregnancy or close to delivery. Gestational hypertension usually goes away after you give birth. However, some women with gestational hypertension have a higher risk of developing chronic hypertension in the future.
- Preeclampsia/ eclampsia:
+ Preeclampsia happens when a woman who previously had normal blood pressure suddenly develops high blood pressure and protein in her urine or other problems after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Women who have chronic hypertension can also get preeclampsia. Preeclampsia happens in about 1 in 25 pregnancies in the United States. Some women with preeclampsia can develop seizures. This is called eclampsia, which is a medical emergency.
Symptoms of preeclampsia include:
l A headache that will not go away
l Changes in vision, including blurry vision, seeing spots, or having changes in eyesight
l Pain in the upper stomach area
l Nausea or vomiting
l Swelling of the face or hands
l Sudden weight gain
l Trouble breathing
Some women have no symptoms of preeclampsia, which is why it is important to visit your health care team regularly, especially during pregnancy.
You are more at risk for preeclampsia if:
l This is the first time you have given birth
l You had preeclampsia during a previous pregnancy.
l You have chronic high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease, or both.
l You have a history of thrombophilia ( a condition that increases the risk of blood clots).
l You are pregnant with multiple babies ( such as twins or triplets).
l You became pregnant using in vitro fertilization
l You have a family history of preeclampsia.
l You have type 1 or 2 diabetes.
l You have obesity.
l You have lupus (an autoimmune disease).
l You are older than 40.
In rare cases, preeclampsia can happen after you have given birth. This is a serious medical condition known as postpartum preeclampsia. It can happen in women without any history of preeclampsia during pregnancy. The symptoms of postpartum preeclampsia are similar to the symptoms of preeclampsia. Postpartum preeclampsia is typically diagnosed within 48 hours after delivery but can happen up to 6 weeks later.
Tell your health care provider or call the emergency phone number right away if you have symptoms of postpartum preeclampsia. You might need emergency medical care.