Midterm Study Flashcards
(395 cards)
What is preconception health?
- Health of all individuals during their reproductive years, regardless of gender or orientation
- Starting at age of first menarche until menopause (1 year of no periods)
- Promotes healthy fertility and focuses on actions that individuals can take, regardless of plans to have children, to reduce risks, promote healthy lifestyles, increase readiness for pregnancy
- Comprehensive approach includes actions on an individual, community, and population level
- Health of parents, their lifestyle choices, and the environment in which they live before and during pregnancy have lifelong implications for their children’s health, learning, and behaviours
- Achieving a healthy pregnancy outcome is influenced by a woman’s health status, lifestyle, and history prior to conception
What are some of the benefits to preconception health care?
o Prevents pre-term births
o Improves birth weight
o Prevents congenital anomalies including neural tube defects
o Reduces infant mortality
o Reduces maternal mortality
o Lessens healthcare system burdens
What can preconception health include?
o Interventions that identify and modify risks to men and women’s reproductive health and future pregnancies
o Promotes health and prevents disease in women of reproductive age
o Improves pregnancy and birth outcomes
o Based on family-centered care principles
o Provides health promotion, screening, and interventions for women of reproductive age to reduce the risk factors that might affect future pregnancies
What is the purpose of preconception health?
o Identify health problems, lifestyle habits, or social concerns that might unfavorably affect pregnancy
o Promote health of the woman, baby, and family and to identify and modify risk factors that are known to influence pregnancy outcomes
What is included in a preconception health assessment?
- Reproductive history
- Environmental hazards and toxins
- Medications – teratogens
- Nutrition, folic acid intake, and weight management
- Genetic conditions and family history
- Substance use (i.e. alcohol and tobacco)
- Chronic diseases, communicable diseases, vaccinations
- Family planning
- Social support, domestic violence, and housing
What types of things would a nurse expect to counsel a patient on when it comes to preconception health?
- Health of parents impacts health of the child
- Identify/modify risk factors in individuals prior to pregnancy
- Identify patients at high risk for an adverse pregnancy outcome
- Risks after 35 years old
- Treatment of medical conditions and results
- Avoiding teratogens
- Cessation or reduction in problematic substance use
- Immunizations
- Exercise
- Referral for genetic counselling
- Referral to family planning services and/or family and social services
- Infectious disease testing (STI’s, Hep B, HIV/AIDS)
- Folic acid supplementation
- Stress management
What types of medical conditions should be tested/treated for during preconception health?
o Diabetes
o Obesity
o STIs
o Hypothyroidism
o Maternal phenylketonuria
What are risks of inadequate nutrition during pregnancy?
o Increase in number of low-birth-weight infants
o Increase in preterm infants
Why are women advised to maintain a folate rich diet and take folic acid supplements before they have conceived? When are they advised to increase intake?
Poor intake causes neural tube defects
o Neural tube begins to close within the first month, often before pregnancy
Supplements should be taken from 3 months prior to conception to 6 months postpartum.
What are some folate rich foods?
liver, beans, lentils, edamame
What childbearing concerns may affect obese women more than a woman at the ideal body weight?
o Infertility issues
o Difficulty maintaining pregnancy including increased risk of spontaneous abortion and recurrent pregnancy loss
o Still birth
o Gestational diabetes
o Preeclampsia/eclampsia
o Noninvasive prenatal testing that misses abnormalities
What are infants of obese mothers at an increased risk of?
o Undetected chromosomal abnormalities
o Neural tube abnormalities
o Heart, ventral wall, and cardiac defects
Why are obese patients more of an aspiration risk during pregnancy than mothers at the ideal body weight?
All pregnant patients experience
Delayed gastric emptying time
Decreased cardiac sphincter (between esophagus and stomach) tone
Hyperacidic gastric contents
These combined with the increased intragastric pressure and volume produced by obesity result in an increased risk of regurgitation and aspiration
What are some concerns associated with advanced maternal age?
o Advanced maternal age may be a risk factor for Down’s syndrome
o Declining fertility with advanced maternal age results in the need for assisted reproductive technologies and preterm delivery
o Multiples/c-sections
What are some concerns associated with advanced paternal age?
Decrease in serum testosterone
Infecundity (sterility)
Congenital anomalies
Adverse perinatal outcomes
o Genetic quality of sperm produced by older men may be reduced
What are some environmental factors that may affect preconception health?
o Education
o Workplace
o Income
o Physical environment
o Access to health service
What infections should be screened during the preconception health assessment?
o Vaccines for Hep B, Rubella, Varicella
o HIV/AIDS screening and treatment
o STIs screening and treatment
What is a postpartum infection? and what are the most common symptoms?
- Also called puerperal infections
- Any infection occurring within 42 days of birth or loss
- The most common symptoms are:
o Fever
o Tachycardia
o Localized pain
What are preconception or antepartum risk factors for postpartum infections?
o Malnutrition or obesity
o Concurrent medical or immunosuppressive conditions
o History of venous thrombosis, UTI, mastitis, pneumonia
o Diabetes mellitus
o Alcohol or substance misuse
o Anemia
o Preeclampsia
What are intrapartum factors that increase the risk of a postpartum infection?
o Caesarean or other operative birth
o Prolonged rupture of membranes or labour
o Internal fetal or uterine pressure monitoring
o Chorioamnionitis – infection of membranes and amniotic fluid
o Bladder catheterization
o Multiple vaginal examinations after membrane rupture
o Epidural anesthesia
o Retained placental fragments
o Postpartum hemorrhage
o Episiotomy or lacerations
o Hematomas
Describe postpartum endometritis including risk factors, signs and symptoms, diagnostics and management
- Infection of uterus lining
- Initially localized at placental site but then spreads
- Most common postpartum infection
Risk factors
o Caesarean
o Prolonged labour or membrane rupture
Signs and symptoms
o Fever, chill
o Tachycardia
o Anorexia, nausea
o Fatigue, lethargy
o Pelvic pain
o Uterine tenderness
o Foul-smelling, profuse lochia (vaginal discharge)
Diagnostics
o Leukocytosis
o Increased sed rate
o Anemia
Management
o Broad spectrum antibiotics (may be considered prophylactically)
o Hydration
o Rest
o Pain relief
Describe postpartum wound infection including risk factors, signs and symptoms, diagnostics and management
An infection of a wound caused by childbirth
Risk factors
o Caesarean
o Episiotomy or laceration
Signs and symptoms
o Fever
o Erythema, edema
o Warmth
o Tenderness, pain
o Seropurulent drainage
o Wound separation
Management
o Broad spectrum antibiotics (may be considered prophylactically)
o Appropriate wound care
Describe postpartum UTIs risk factors, signs and symptoms, and management
Risk factors
o Urinary catheterization
o Frequent pelvic examinations
o Epidural anesthesia
o Genital tract injury
o History of UTIs
o Caesarean birth
Signs and symptoms
o Dysuria, frequency, urgency
o Low-grade fever
o Urinary retention
o Hematuria
o Pyuria (WBC or puss in urine)
o Costovertebral angle tenderness or flank pain if upper UTI
Management
o Antibiotics
o Pain relief
o Hydration
Describe postpartum mastitis including progression, signs and symptoms, and management
- Most common 3-4 weeks after birth well after the flow of milk has been established
Progression
o Initial lesion is often an infected nipple fissure
o Ductal system becomes infected
o Inflammatory edema and engorgement of breast obstruct milk flow in the lobe
o Regional, then generalized mastitis follows
o Can progress to breast abscess if not treated promptly
Signs and symptoms
o Chills, fever
o Malaise
o Local breast tenderness, pain
o Swelling, redness
o Axillary adenopathy
Management
o Counselling about prevention of cracked nipples, incomplete breast emptying, and plugged milk ducts to prevent it from being an issue
o Manual expression or breast pump can be used to maintain lactation
o Intensive antibiotic therapy
o Local heat or cold
o Adequate hydration
o Analgesics