Having a healthy baby is a happy thing for all families. However, women on
dialysis often wonder whether dialysis affects their chances of getting pregnant
and the health of their babies. Here the experts point out that generally
pregnancy is not recommended for women on dialysis.
As kidney disease can decrease their ability to have children, over 90% of
women on dialysis can not get pregnant. Moreover, their body can not secrete
hormone normally so some women on dialysis may not menstruate on periods
regularly.
Moreover, pregnancy for women on dialysis can bring much risk to babies. As
our kidneys can filtrate the produced wastes and extra water out of bodies.
Therefore, we can keep a favorable internal environment thus maintaining our
normal physiological activities. However, the kidney disease patients usually
receive about 12 hour’s dialysis per week so it only replaces a portion of
kidney function. The women on dialysis stay in a higher level of wastes products
than those with good renal functions. The polluted internal body environment can
affect the healthy growth and development of the babies.
Moreover, during pregnancy, the babies release much wastes into mother’ blood
stream. Therefore, it will cause extra pressure to their kidneys. Therefore, in
order to keep the blood clean, they have to increase the times of dialysis.
If a woman on dialysis wishes to have a baby, she should consult her doctors
about her individual condition. She should know the potential risks and take
protective measures so as to keep the women and baby healthy.
If a woman has recently started dialysis and still has a fair amount of
residual renal function or if she had a transplant without serious rejection and
with a stable renal function, the chances of getting pregnant are higher.
However, the patients should know that pregnancy is not recommended for at least
one year after a kidney transplant even with stable renal function.
Dialysis can affect the health of both mother and babies. Therefore, the
patients should make a detailed plan before getting pregnancy.