High risk pregnancy and what it means for mother, father, and baby. Well lets start at the beginning... You find out you are pregnant, this is one of the happiest and scariest times you can ever have in your life. This is true for mothers and fathers we will discuss each in turn because it is something that you are in together for the long haul and both need different supports. Then you go in and are labeled "high risk"... heart stops, stomach drops out, fear sets in. Not worry, not concern flat out all encompassing fear.

What does this mean? What can I do? How can we support eachother through this? Will the baby be OK? Can we afford this? What about insurance? These are just a couple of things that go through your head. Now lets take a step back and a nice deep breath.

"High risk pregnancy" is an all encompassing term. Understand that it can be very serious or it can be very minor. (Not that anything is minor when considering your soon to be child, but not something that is immediately threatening.) Some of the causes of a "high risk" labeling include but are not limited to: your age (if you are over 35 you are immediately high risk), your weight (if you are overweight to start, or gain too much too fast, or too low), if you had a c-section in a previous birth (this decreases the strength of uterus wall), medications that you are taking (any narcotic medication Valium, Ritalin, pain medications, etc), or family history.

Some of these you can do things about and we will discuss them some in this hub, others like your age, previous birth, or family history, there is absolutely nothing you can do about. The only thing you can do is follow the other steps because they are things that anyone who is pregnant should follow, but if you are high risk you just have to be even more careful. Things like taking your prenatal vitamins.

Listen up here! Helpful tip! Flintstone's Completes! 2 Flintstone's Completes has EXACTLY the same vitamins as the $60 per bottle prenatal. Yes I sat on the floor of the store and checked one to the other. And the Flintstone's Completes are much easier on your stomach. Note I have said every time Flintstone's Completes. No other Flintstone will work for these purposes.

Take a lot of folic acid. Personally I used Juice Plus which has a 98% rate of natural healthy births. Nothing is 100% in life and people who take things like Juice Plus (I was taking it long before I found out I was pregnant), have a different lifestyle which may lend itself to the high rate. But I put every good card in the deck that I could find. The vegetable portion of the Juice Plus also helps with the constipation and therefore helps with hemorrhoids (yes I know this is ta-bu to say but it is honest, you will get constipated, and you will probably get hemorrhoids). When this started I took an extra vegetable or two and it helped tremendously, Juice Plus is a 100% natural supplement as well.

If you are overweight, this is NOT the time to go on a diet to lose weight. It is a time to change your eating habits and cut out fast food, cookies, cake, soda, salt, we all know what is bad for us, you don't need me t list them all. Change your diet and eat what the doctor tells you is OK. Most doctors will help you with this if you just ask. If you are overweight one of the major risks is gestational diabetes which is dangerous for both baby and mother.

If you are underweight this is the time to start looking at if you have an eating disorder. I am not saying this to be mean, or attacking anyone. I am simply saying that now is the time you need to understand if you have a disorder it is OK to reach out for some help. If you don't, not only is the pregnancy going to be high risk, but the child has a VERY high risk of being born underweight and other complications at birth. After birth you will still have to get this under control because children are sponges and they do what they SEE, much much more so than they do what you say.

If you are on medications you need to meet with your Doctor about a healthy way to get off of them. If you have been on them for any period of time you more than likely cannot quit cold turkey. If you do you are running higher risks due to the withdrawal that your body will go through. But you do want to meet with them and find out ways to reduce your levels through the pregnancy. (And of course if you drink or smoke those need to be cut out immediately!)

Insurance often covers these things, but if you are like us and don't have insurance you can talk to your doctor and they have a set amount you pay for the pregnancy. You may pay a little more for some tests, but the OB cost itself won't change very much if at all. Most doctors and hospitals have a preset amount for services, and if you pay cash you generally get a discount as well. (Our daughter's birth cost us $2300 for the OB, and $1700 for the hospital. If we had to have a c-section or had done an epidural those prices were set as well.)

I would recommend finding a OB group that has multiple doctors. This will enable you to make choices without the doctor having to worry about an all night stint at the hospital when it comes time for the birth, or if there are any issues. Personally, our OB group had 7 doctors, so I knew that every night a doctor was on call and at the hospital. The doctor who admitted me did not deliver our daughter because I chose a natural birth, but because the next doctor was coming in they didn't push towards a c-section or pitosen.

Now that you have a list of some of the things that could have given you the risk of "high pregnancy" and some things you can do, what else does it mean? Your OB will probably want to see you more frequently than a "standard" pregnancy. You may have an extra ultrasound and a few more tests run, but overall, you will just need to be a little more careful than you already planned on being.

As a woman remember while you are worried about all of these things, your husband is too. Not only is he worried about you and the baby, he is also having to deal with your hormones and changes. Supporting eachother through these times are the things that make the relationship stronger and the bond something that can never be broken.

If it gets too severe they may put you on bed-rest which is when your spouse truly comes into play. Bed rest is in absolutely no way fun for anyone. It is literally that. You can get up only to go to the restroom. While this is frustrating for the woman, berating your spouse is not helpful. They are going to do everything they can to make this as comfortable for you... the unfortunate part is that you will NOT be comfortable.

Take time no matter how frustrated you both maybe to remember how wonderful this is. And while you are both scared, you will make it through this together. Don't worry about anything you have done in the past. Worry is not good for you or the baby. It made it this far, and those things can't be changed either way.

Yes, "high risk" means that there is a higher chance of losing the baby. I hate to say that, but to not say it would be false and misleading. You and your spouse/signficant other/family are already on pins and needles and now you throw this into the mix. What it means in a nut shell is that you will worry even more, stay up even later, talk to your unborn baby even more, and when that child is born you will have an even stronger bond!