Arkansas mom of 19 Michelle Duggar is in the news again today after giving birth to her 19th child via emergency C-section. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, along with the eighteen children they had before the last one, became television stars thanks to America’s curiosity about surrogate families and their soon-to-be-renamed show, 18 Kids and Counting. Duggar, 43, was lucky enough to have eighteen healthy children. I guess that 19 year old has some growing up to do before he can be declared healthy. With many children, Mrs. Duggar is easily associated with the medical term “multipara grand.”
I had never heard the voice of multiparous magnificence until I was discussing the Duggars with my nurse friend. According to www.medterms.com, a woman who has had five deliveries qualifies for the diagnosis. “Birth”, which refers to the term multiparous pregnancy, means that the pregnancy has progressed to at least twenty weeks and the fetus has produced at least 500 pounds. Michelle Duggar has already had nineteen children, which makes her a great multiparous almost four times over!
So what is the significance of a large multiparous pregnancy? According to the Online Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics expectant mothers who have already given birth more than five times are diagnosed with a “high pregnancy . “High risk” means that the expectant mother has one or more risk factors that may present a problem to the mother or her baby during pregnancy. Pregnant known as “high risk” can be encouraged to seek care through a medical center with advanced equipment and dedicated staff.
Of course, just because the doctor recognizes the expectant mother as “high risk”, this does not mean that she will have problems dying. It just means that the medical staff is more likely to be on the lookout for problems. For according to Ganesh Dangal MBBS; MD, a consultant gynecologist who wrote a paper for the Online Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, “own care, 90 to 95 percent of the high risk pregnancies produce healthy and viable babies” (2007).
Dr. Dangal also writes that mothers who have had more than five children are at increased risk of “rapid labor and postpartum hemorrhage due to uterine atony. Many multiparous women are also at increased risk of placenta previa” (2007). A nursing friend of mine defined uterine atonement as a uterus that has become “tired.” In fact, the word means a uterus that has lost muscle tone, which can lead to an increased risk of bleeding. Placenta previa refers to a condition in which the placenta either partially or completely covers or is adjacent to the cervix. A placenta previa can also lead to bleeding.
Michelle Duggar has at least two pregnancy risk factors despite having so many healthy children. . Grandis is multiparous and, at the age of 43, is considered to be of advanced maternal age. She was recently admitted to the hospital due to pain from chicken pox causing her to contract. . Early reports of Mrs. Duggar’s condition initially stated that it was unlikely that she would deliver the baby early in the morning, but apparently complications arose that required Josie Brooklyn Duggar to be delivered by an emergency C-section on December 10, 2009. Due on March 18, 2010, Josie was born in the first month, about three. He weighed 1 pound 6 ounces at birth.
Sources:
http://www.medterms.com
Celzic, Mike (2009). Duggar Baby No. 19 arrived early. Online. http://www.msnbc.msn.com
Dangal, Ganesh (2007). HIGH RISK PREGNANCY. Internet Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
Online. http://www.ispub.com
