Factors of high-risk pregnancy and risk factors for pregnancy-associated disease
What makes a pregnancy high risk (maternal, obstetric, medical and social factors), the shared mechanism of placental dysfunction behind pre-eclampsia, growth restriction and stillbirth, risk factor lists for pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, VTE and other pregnancy-specific disease, Australian maternal mortality data, and worked absolute risk and NNT calculations.
Tier 1Medical sciences concept
Written with AI assistance and fact-checked against the sources below. For exam study, not clinical decisions. How notes are made
At a glance
- A pregnancy is high risk when the mother or fetus is more likely than average to suffer harm. Australian guidance asks for a risk assessment at booking and again as the pregnancy goes on, because risk changes.
- Risk factors fall into four groups: maternal characteristics, past obstetric history, pre-existing medical disease and factors arising in this pregnancy.
- Much pregnancy-specific disease (pre-eclampsia, growth restriction, abruption, stillbirth) shares one root: defective placentation. So a history of one predicts the others.
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Sources
- Maternal deaths in Australia (data to 2023)AU/NZAustralian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2025 release, data 2014-2023 (accessed November 2026)
- Australian Pregnancy Care GuidelinesAU/NZLiving Evidence for Australian Pregnancy and Postnatal Care, funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, Living guideline, 2024 onwards
- SOMANZ Hypertension in Pregnancy Guideline 2023AU/NZSociety of Obstetric Medicine of Australia and New Zealand, 2023 (current, November 2026)
- Australasian Diabetes in Pregnancy Society (ADIPS) 2025 consensus recommendations for the screening, diagnosis and classification of gestational diabetesAU/NZSweeting A, Hare MJ, de Jersey SJ, et al. Med J Aust 2025;223(3):161-167, 2025
- Rolnik DL et al. Aspirin versus placebo in pregnancies at high risk for preterm preeclampsia (ASPRE). N Engl J Med 2017;377:613-622New England Journal of Medicine, 2017
- Antenatal care (NICE guideline NG201)National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2021
- VTE risk assessment table (adapted from RCOG Green-top guideline 37a)AU/NZSociety of Obstetric Medicine of Australia and New Zealand, Current SOMANZ resource (uploaded 2024)
- Last updated
- 14 November 2026
What changed
- 14 November 2026 Turnstile bot check on sign-in and signed-out feedback