Heard About Crohn’s Disease During Pregnancy? Is It Treatable?

If you’re suffering from Crohn’s disease or Colitis, you are pregnant. You must be wondering about how it will impact the life slowly nurturing inside you. Well! Under the supervision of your healthcare provider. You will surely be able to sail through a healthy pregnancy and deliver a healthy baby, in this condition. Only you should know how to manage the signs of Crohn’s disease.

What is a Crohn’s Disease?   

This is a kind of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Inflammatory bowel disease like Crohn’s causes swelling in the digestive tract, giving rise to stomach aches, fatigue, diarrhoea, weight loss, and malnutrition. The global incidence of Crohn’s disease (CD) ranges from 0.1% to 16/100000, while that of ulcerative colitis (UC) ranges from 0.5% to 24.5/100000, with a prevalence of 396/100000^. 

There may not be a well-known cure for the symptoms of Crohn’s disease. However, to reduce the signs, you might have to follow a few therapies, as advised by your doctor.

How Do Crohn’s Disease and Pregnancy Affect Each Other?

Most of you may have a healthy pregnancy and deliver a healthy baby with Crohn’s disease, but you might have to consider a few things while you are expecting your baby inside your womb.

According to Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, most of you can enjoy a healthy pregnancy, when Crohn’s disease is in a state of remission. But, it’s not that this wouldn’t affect your pregnancy at all. If you have active Crohn’s disease in pregnancy:

• You might have an increased risk of miscarriage.
• You might have a premature birth.
• Some of you with this disease may also give birth to a baby with a low birth weight.  

Even if your doctor advises you to plan your pregnancy when there is a remission of the disease, according to studies of 2017, conceiving at the time of remission of Crohn’s disease would not change pregnancy complications.

How Is Crohn’s Disease Treatment During Pregnancy?

To take you through a healthy pregnancy and to make you deliver a healthy baby, your doctor would take some imaging studies of the intestine to check the progression of Crohn’s disease as well as the developing baby. In this case, ultrasound is preferred. However, for more elaborate images, MRI scans are also done. Additionally, flexible sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy (one–third of the large intestine) are also done. Based on the tests, the treatment methods begin: 

• Your healthcare practitioner will give you medicines to keep Crohn’s disease from progressing. The specialist may weigh down the risks of Crohn’s disease. A significant progression of Crohn’s disease may not be that healthy for your pregnancy.
• Alternatively, you can give birth to your baby vaginally. 
• Along with the above, your healthcare expert can also make you deliver your baby through an emergency C-section.

With proper medication, surgical methods as well as nutrition, you will be able to enjoy a healthy pregnancy with Crohn’s disease. Enjoy the journey as much as you can. Moreover, midway through your pregnancy journey or by the end of your pregnancy journey, plan to secure your baby’s health and healthy future by including cord blood banking in your birth plan.