Pregnant With Medical Issues? Questions To Ask Part 2

(Continued from Part 1)

-What effect with the pregnancy have on me? This is different from the first one because some disorders can be exacerbated by pregnancy, medicine or no. For instance, a good friend of mine from high school has MS. She told me that, while she wanted kids before, she didn't think it would be a good idea to get pregnant because it might make her disease progress even faster than it already had. She'd seen this happen with her cousin and, while no two cases are exactly alike, she didn't want to take the risk. Also, people with severe injuries like I mention below might decide against having children because they fear their bodies cannot handle the stress a pregnancy would cause. What we have to remember here is that it is not only the baby's life to consider, but our own and the rest of our family's. Some might find this selfish, but consider this: There are religions (i.e. Judaism) that will require that a mother terminate a pregnancy if carrying it to term will endanger her life. The reason for this is that life-which is to be preserved above all else-is thought to begin at birth, not conception. There's definitely some disagreement as to exactly when the fetus would be considered a life-at birth, when it is capable of living outside of the womb, etc-but, until then, it is considered a potential life while the mother is a full life. A woman who believes this way might decide not to get pregnant (or to have the baby delivered early) so she will not have to deal with the physical and mental effects terminating a pregnancy may cause.

-What sorts of special precautions do I need to take, if any? Eight years ago, I was in a massive car wreck and broke my pelvis. To literally put me back together, doctors had to put two metal pins in the left side to stabilize the bones while I recovered. One of my doctors told me that, as long as I had those pins in, my pelvis may not be able to expand enough to permit me to carry a child to term and have it naturally. He said that, since this wasn't something they'd be able to predict ahead of time, he would probably schedule a C-section as close to the end of 9 months as possible just to be safe. I didn't get pregnant and had the pins removed last year during my hip replacement, but the point is that you might have to take special precautions to ensure your own health rather than the baby's.

And now, for what is probably the most difficult question of all-
-Is it worth the risk? For some people, the answer might be no. However, it's something only they and their doctor can decide. If a couple can't have a child naturally but still feels called to parenthood, there are tons of children out there in need of a home. There's more than one kind of family.