Most women with IBD can have healthy pregnancies.

IBD can be associated with a slight increased risk of

  • preterm delivery (born before 37 weeks)
  • small for gestational age infants
  • pregnancy loss (miscarriages or spontaneous abortion)

These risks are increased even more in women who have active IBD.  

Women who had active IBD within 3 months of conception are at risk of having active disease during pregnancy4. On the other hand, women who were in remission at time of conception will be more likely to stay in remission during pregnancy.  Therefore, people with IBD should aim to be in remission before attempting to become pregnant and should continue the IBD medications that they need to stay in remission (the exception being methotrexate and tofacitinib and ozanimod, which should be stopped at least 3 – 6 months prior to conception).