Precautions After IVF Pregnancy

Most of the IVF patients become exceedingly elated when the result of their pregnancy test is positive as their trials and diligence during the tough period have culminated into something fruitful.

However, one must be sensitive and bit careful not to become complacent because not all pregnancies result in birth of a child. One must still take precautions and go through a few check-ups.

While a positive test corroborates pregnancy, one is still insure if the pregnancy is healthy; or if it is in the uterus. While most pregnancies result in a baby, about 10- 20% pregnancies fail to produce fruitful outcome. It holds true for all pregnancies, not just IVF pregnancies. This is especially true for older women, who have a much higher risk of miscarriage, as compared to younger women.

This is precisely the reason why the IVF pregnancies need to be monitored carefully to ensure that everything would proceed smoothly. Initially, serial blood tests are done every 3 days, to check whether the HCG levels are doubling; and once the HCG level exceeds 1000 mIU/ml, then vaginal ultrasound scans are done to confirm that the pregnancy is in the uterus and is growing well.

IVF patients are usually more wary and careful when they are pregnant, because for them it is such a precious pregnancy. They are apprehensive if they start cramping, and bleeding, because they are frightened they might lose the pregnancy. Many of them worry even if they don’t have any symptoms, because they believe that all pregnant women are meant to have morning sickness, and that the absence of symptoms means that there’s something wrong with their pregnancy.

Some pregnancies are bound to fail. They may end up as a miscarriage, or as an ectopic pregnancy. IVF patients find it hard to comprehend how they can have an ectopic, especially if their tubes are blocked. This is because when the embryos are transferred into the uterus, one cannot stop them from travelling out of the uterus into the fallopian tubes.

Even if some of the women are unfortunate and their pregnancies come a cropper, one must not be too dejected or depressed. One cannot alter the outcome, because the commonest reason for a miscarriage is a genetic abnormality in the fetus, and this is nature’s defense mechanism, to prevent the birth of an abnormal baby.

While these defects are often random, they are more common among older women as the eggs of older women have more genetic abnormalities.

However, the bright spot is the fact that one has conceived (even though it resulted in miscarriage) means that chances of having a healthy baby in the future are fantastic.

Dr. Ajay Murdia is a highly competent infertility specialist with an over three decades of experience. He runs Indira IVF clinic which is a destination for all the mechanisms of infertility treatment and has centres in Udaipur, Pune, and New Delhi. It is one of the leading IVF centres and hundreds of infertile couples have availed the services to fulfil their dreams of parenthood.

http://indiraivf.com