IBD and Pregnancy Unit

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases are chronic ailments with alternating flare-ups and remissions requiring regular immune-suppressing drugs and often involving gastric surgery.
These situations raise many questions among young women wondering how it may affect their ability to become pregnant and give birth. Pregnancy against a backdrop of Inflammatory Bowel Disease is generally considered a high-risk pregnancy.
Can a chronic disease affect my chances of becoming pregnant?
Is pregnancy likely to cause the disease to flare up?
Isn’t it risky to take drugs for the disease during pregnancy? Can’t they damage the fetus?
This Unit was established to answer these questions and many more. A special women’s clinic – with female gynecologists and gastroenterologists – will address your concerns. We will also involve a surgeon where necessary, particularly if the woman has undergone significant surgery or J-pouch surgery in the past.
When a woman comes in for consultation before becoming pregnant, we emphasize the importance of being in clinical remission before conceiving. Patients who are already pregnant will receive close attention and support throughout the pregnancy and after, for that too is a time when the disease can erupt once more.
A Coordinating Clinical Nurse is responsible for making all our services accessible to and comfortable for you and a Medical Psychologist offers advice on ways to live your life despite your chronic disease. A Senior Clinical Dietician will also help build a personalized nutrition plan for you.
The Unit’s multi-disciplinary team provides an important and attractive framework for women at such a critical time in their lives. We offer optimal conditions so that every woman – despite chronic disease – can start and build a family, and give birth to healthy children.
The clinic is open to women with Crohn’s and Colitis from all over the country.