Health Library

Detailed information on pregnancy and childbirth, including information on birth statistics, pregnancy planning, preconception care, prenatal care, pregnancy discomforts, pregnancy tests, pregnancy risks, pregnancy warning signs, labor and delivery, breas

Detailed information on high-risk pregnancy

Pregnancy loss is the death of an unborn baby (fetus) at any time during pregnancy. Pregnancy loss may occur in as many as 1 in every 4 pregnancies. Most pregnancy losses happen during the first trimester.

Detailed information on pregnancy and childbirth, including information on birth statistics, pregnancy planning, preconception care, prenatal care, pregnancy discomforts, pregnancy tests, pregnancy risks, pregnancy warning signs, labor and delivery, breas

A pregnancy that develops outside the uterus is called ectopic pregnancy. This nearly always happens in a fallopian tube. So it’s often called tubal pregnancy. Rarely, an ectopic pregnancy will happen in an ovary, in the cervix, or the belly (abdomen).

The signs of pregnancy vary from woman to woman, but the most obvious sign usually is a missed period.

Anemia is when your blood has too few red blood cells. Having too few red blood cells makes it harder for your blood to carry oxygen or iron. This can affect how cells work in nerves and muscles. During pregnancy, your baby also needs your blood.

Detailed information on the most common complications during pregnancy

In the past, a woman who miscarried several times might never know why it happened. Today, more and more women are finding out the causes of their recurrent miscarriages.

Normal blood pressure is essential for a healthy pregnancy. If you have high blood pressure before you become pregnant, you are at higher risk for developing certain problems during pregnancy. This video explains how chronic high blood pressure can affect you and your growing baby and why special monitoring is important.

Pre-existing heart disease is a heart problem that you had before you got pregnant. This often means a heart condition that you were born with (congenital). These can include heart problems that may have been fixed. It can also include heart valve issues.

With the correct care, most women can enjoy a healthy pregnancy--even with health challenges, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, infectious diseases, or sextually transmitted infections. Read on to learn more.

Diabetes is a condition in which the body can't make enough insulin, or can't use insulin normally. Insulin is a hormone. It helps sugar (glucose) in the blood get into cells of the body to be used as fuel. When glucose can’t enter the cells, it builds up in the blood. This is called high blood sugar (hyperglycemia).

Some of the more common complications of pregnancy are miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, and bleeding.

A pregnancy that lasts more than 42 weeks is called postterm. A pregnancy that is between 41 and 42 weeks is called late-term. Most women deliver between 37 and 42 weeks of pregnancy.

Cholestasis of pregnancy is a liver problem. It slows or stops the normal flow of bile from the gallbladder. This causes itching and yellowing of your skin, eyes, and mucous membranes (jaundice). Cholestasis sometimes starts in early pregnancy. But it is more common in the second and third trimesters. It most often goes away within a few days after delivery. The high levels of bile may cause serious problems for your developing baby (fetus).

When a mother has diabetes, her baby is at risk for problems. Read on to learn more.

Two types of diabetes can occur during pregnancy—pre-existing diabetes, which will continue after pregnancy, and gestational diabetes, which will go away after the baby is born. Diabetes is a condition in which your body doesn’t make enough insulin or you can’t use it correctly. This video offers details on how these two types diabetes can affect a pregnancy.

Epilepsy is a disorder of the nervous system. It is also called a seizure disorder. Normally the body's nerves send information by electrical and chemical signals. People with epilepsy have abnormal electrical signals in the brain. This can cause a seizure. Seizures can cause severe shaking of muscles. Or they may be very mild with hardly any symptoms at all.