If you suffer from Rheumatoid arthritis and you’re about to have a baby, you may be wondering what effects your disease will have on the child. If you’re thinking about having a baby, you really need to consider whether or not someone in your condition is ready to have a baby, whether the arthritis will go away, whether or not the child will inherit your disease, whether or not your disease will affect the pregnancy and a number of other factors. However, there are some things you can do to plan ahead and make things a little easier no matter if your baby’s on the way or if he or she hasn’t even been conceived yet.
The Effects on Pregnancy
When it comes to Rheumatoid arthritis pregnancy, you should know that your disease will affect certain aspects that are necessary for a healthy gestation period. Rheumatoid arthritis affects your physical ability, your strength and your endurance. Also, the symptoms you experience may interfere with your ability to care for the baby once he or she is born. Therefore, before you think of having a baby, you have to decide if you even have the strength to go through with a Rheumatoid arthritis pregnancy.
Self Test
There’s a self test you can do to determine if you are in fact fit to be a mother. Take a ten pound weight and try to lift it from the height of your bed. Then, hold the weight in your arm while sitting for at least ten minutes. Next, take that weight up and down the stairs. The other test includes walking around the house with the weight for ten minutes.
If, after doing all of this, you find that the pain in your hips, knees and feet increases, you may find Rheumatoid arthritis pregnancy very difficult. Some other things you might want to try are screwing the lid on and off a baby bottle, getting through your average day without the need to nap, as well as bending your neck with your chin to your chest as if you were looking at the baby while holding him or her close to you.
Improved Symtpoms
The good news is that the symptoms of Rheumatoid arthritis are sometimes relieved during pregnancy. This occurs at varying times during the Rheumatoid arthritis pregnancy. In most women, however, the improvement happens at the end of the fourth month. You may find that joint swelling decreases, although joint pain and stiffness can still exist due to joint damage.
It should be noted, however, that the improved symptoms usually don’t last after the Rheumatoid arthritis pregnancy. In fact, in most cases the symtoms flare up again about two to eight weeks after the baby is born.
Heredity and Rheumatoid Arthritis
As far as passing the disease to you baby is concerned, doctors still don’t really know what causes the disease and they haven’t definitively decided that heredity is the cause. Most believe that environmental factors are the most important reasons why people develop Rheumatoid arthritis. However, some believe that heredity can make the baby more susceptible to developing the disease and that the environmental factors will give them the trigger they need to develop symptoms. Having an abortion does not prevent a flare. Any type of delivery, spontaneous abortion, therapeutic abortion, or stillbirth can result in a flare.
Hopefully, this information can help you make a more informed decision whether or not a Rheumatoid arthritis pregnancy is something you want to go through with.