The death of one of the children that Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez were expecting marked the beginning of this week. The Medical Correspondent of CNN PortugalAna Sofia Baptista, said in the program CNN Late Afternoon that twin pregnancies pose an increased risk compared to singleton pregnancies.
“These cases are rare, especially in well-monitored pregnancies, as is naturally the case. However, twin pregnancies are always at higher risk, either during the pregnancy itself or during childbirth,” she says.
“Risk is a phenomenon associated with fetal growth restriction – in simple words, it is a baby that does not grow as expected for its gestational age. This phenomenon, which can happen in all pregnancies, but especially in twins, can result in fetal death.”
Ana Sofia Baptista states, however, that other complications may have occurred.
“Something might have happened unexpectedly during the birth that caused the baby to suffer acutely. Lack of oxygen (fetal hypoxia), a compression of the umbilical cord, a placental abruption. The chances are many and, in a pregnancy with twins, this risk is always greater”.
About possible sequels for the child that was born, the specialist says that everything depends “on the reason for the death of the other baby.
Marina Mocho, director of the obstetrics service at Hospital de São João, shares the opinion that these pregnancies carry more risks.
“Twin pregnancies are always special. They always have a different vigilance and the risks of mishaps are always greater. They were different twins, so they had two placentas, one of them could have some growth disorder or one of them could be born very early and not survive,” he describes.
“When it’s a death in utero, when women arrive at the hospital because they don’t feel the baby move or anything like that, it’s something they apprehend at the same time as we do because they see on the ultrasound that the heart is not beating and we have to say it at the moment. When it is close to or during labor, they are usually catastrophic situations”, such as placental abruption, explains Marina Mocho.
“These are medical emergencies and often the mother is not the first to know, but the father. She was operated on urgently, it is communicated first to the father and then to the mother”.
Source: CNN Brasil
