Expert: Joys Of Parenthood Possible For Transplant Patients
By Lynne Adkins
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Just because you have undergone an organ transplant doesn't mean you can't experience the joys of parenthood.
Organ transplant patients must take anti-rejection medicines everyday for life, but those pills are no reason a woman can't become pregnant and successfully have a baby according to Dr. Vincent Armenti, principal investigator of the National Transplantation Pregnancy Registry in Philadelphia.
He says with help it is safe.
"[These pregnancies] should be assumed to be pregnancies that involve a multi-disciplinary approach, in close consultation with the transplant physician, obstetrician, neonatologist," says Armenti.
The registry has followed pregnancies involving male and female transplant patients for 20-years and, he says, the babies are at higher risk than normal for being premature and having a low birth weight.
