Introduction
Women who are planning a pregnancy after hernia surgery will have concerns or fears attributed to the hernia surgery, such as:
- Will my pregnancy process be normal?
- Will the mesh placed during hernia surgery interfere with the growth of my baby or the progress of my pregnancy?
Getting into the details
Before we find solutions to the above concerns, we should investigate some details regarding the hernia surgery the pregnant woman has undergone, such as:
- What type of hernia surgery is it?
- Was it a laparoscopic operation?
- What sort of mesh was used? (There are various types of mesh, such as synthetic and absorbable mesh.)
- Where was the mesh placed?
- Where were the location and indications of the hernia during the surgery?
Pregnancy After Hernia – Safety Tips & Management
Pregnancy is a process where the abdominal wall will stretch, and it adds a small risk of failure to the previous hernia repair.
To ensure a safe pregnancy following a Hernia operation, follow these tips.
- Maintain a good abdominal wall tone before getting pregnant, so the preparation for pregnancy has to start much earlier.
- Regular exercise and the buildup of good abdominal wall tone are important as they can compensate for the stretch of the abdomen during pregnancy.
- Eat a well-balanced and high-protein diet which can help build the quality of muscle and also maintain it.
- The quality of the previous scar.
- Maintain good control of diabetes if you are diabetic.
- Avoid smoking and obesity. Also, keep control of your weight when planning for pregnancy, as gaining a lot of weight with previous hernia repair procedures aids in hernia repair failure.
- The patient has to inform her obstetrician or the doctor who is going to conduct a delivery that she has undergone a previous hernia repair and if there was a mesh placed.
- She has to inform the doctor about the surgery because it’s crucial that they both be aware of the mesh’s placement and location if the patient is scheduled for a cesarean section. It will be easy for the obstetrician to plan the operation accordingly.
When the patient takes these precautions, the pregnancy journey will be successful for women who have undergone hernia surgery before. Hence, the chance of recurrence or failure of a hernia following pregnancy is drastically reduced.
Do you have more questions about pregnancy & hernia? Click here to read more
