High blood glucose, also called blood sugar, can harm your baby during the first weeks of pregnancy, even before you know you are pregnant. If you have diabetes and are already pregnant, see your doctor as soon as possible to make a plan to manage your diabetes.
These are the only veins in the body that carry fresh, oxygenated blood. Blood leaves the heart from the left ventricle through the artery called the aorta. The aorta has several branches into other arteries that are carrying blood away from the heart and to the body tissues.
The pulmonary artery leaves the right side of the heart and brings blue, deoxygenated blood to the lungs. Occasionally, a child may be born with extra blood vessels that come off of the aorta and travel to the lungs. These are called aortopulmonary (AP) collaterals. They may be present in the setting of other congenital (existing at birth) heart disease. Sometimes the pulmonary artery fails to develop normally and may be too small to take the blue blood to the lungs.