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Pregnancy and Childbirth: The answers

 

Clotting disorders in pregnancy: Thrombosis

 

 

Introduction

Thrombosis, which is the clotting of blood within the blood vessels, is a serious but fortunately uncommon complication in pregnancy.

Pregnancy, by its very nature, increases the risk of a woman getting thrombosis. The immediate post delivery phase is the period of highest risk both for deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE)

 

When thrombosis occurs, treatment is necessary and will need to be continued for the remainder of the pregnancy and for several weeks beyond.

 

Apart from being a painful condition, deep vein thrombosis - or DVT, as it is known in the short form - requires treatment in the form of injections during pregnancy. These have to be administered at least once a day, every day. Though clearly unpleasant, this is necessary.

 

When a clot is dislodged, it is transported via the bloodstream to the heart and ultimately to the lungs. At that point, the matter is deadly serious. This is what is known as pulmonary embolism (PE), a highly dangerous complication any time, let alone in pregnancy.

 

Pulmonary embolism has remained one of the three leading causes of maternal death in the developed world for many years now.

 

Even without the potentially fatal complication of pulmonary embolism (PE), deep vein thrombosis can cause chronic problems; as we shall discuss shortly. With proper information, most affected mothers are adequately motivated to continue with treatment.

Risk factors for Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) in Pregnancy

Thrombosis takes place in the deep-lying veins. The veins in the calves, as well as the inside upper part of the thighs, are particularly prone.

 

There are two major types of blood vessels in the body. These are veins and arteries. The function of veins is to take blood from all parts of the body back to the heart. The arteries take freshly oxygenated blood from the heart to all parts of the body.

 

Thrombosis in the arteries is extremely rare and occurs only in special circumstances. We shall cover this in a little while.

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