evidence: A high-risk pregnancy is a pregnancy that involves increased health risks for the pregnant person, fetus or both. Certain health conditions and your age (being over 35 or under 17 when pregnant) can make a pregnancy high risk. These pregnancies require close monitoring to reduce the chance of complications. All pregnancies carry risks. The definition of a high-risk pregnancy is any pregnancy that carries increased health risks for the pregnant person, fetus or both. People with high-risk pregnancies may need extra medical care before, during and after they give birth. This helps to reduce the possibility and severity of complications. [...] Approximately 30,000 to 50,000 pregnant people (between 6% and 8%) in the U.S. have high-risk pregnancies per year.