Is a cryptic pregnancy dangerous to the mother or the baby?

Given that cryptic pregnancies are diagnosed so far along in a pregnancy, it can be dangerous to mom and baby since proper prenatal care may not have been taken, as OB/GYN specialist Jessica Shepherd, MD, explains.

Transcript

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Cryptic pregnancies, because they

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are diagnosed so much further along in the pregnancy or even at the time of labor, can be dangerous, both to Mom and the baby.

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And that's because prenatal care was not usually had early in a pregnancy, which we, as OB-GYNs, really,

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really like to see women early in their pregnancy. And so if you have, again, nutritional deficits, if there's any smoking or alcohol

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use throughout the pregnancy or use of medication that can be harmful to babies, again, this can cause danger to the fetus.

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And a lot of times that can only be assessed after the delivery because the patients are so far along in their pregnancy

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it really is important just to get them through the remainder of their pregnancy and making sure that they have all the care that they need for the remainder of their pregnancy.

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When we think of cryptic pregnancy and how it might be dangerous to Mom and the baby, we also need to consider Mom. If she has any diseases or conditions that

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need to be treated during pregnancy, that is a really good reason why women should be diagnosed with pregnancy as early as possible.

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The other thing to consider is during a cryptic pregnancy or a cryptic delivery, there may be more than one baby,

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and so women obviously, we would love them to get prenatal care so that you can have a diagnosis of whether it's twins or triplets

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and so that that can be a high-risk pregnancy that is taken care of in the proper way.