Lupus erythematosus is a fairly uncommon and autoimmune disease where the body attacks its own tissue, and for years it had been thought that pregnancy and lupus were incompatible, as risks associated with the disease could damage the fetus and also endanger the mother during gestation - but a new study has proven that most pregnancies where lupus is present do well.

The pregnancy lupus risks the study focused on were on women whose condition wasn't too active, and the general conclusion was that the majority of those suffering from this disease could become pregnant were mostly free from harm, although they did identify a few risk factors that could put them at a higher risk of bad outcomes.

Researchers found that the women with higher risks in pregnancy with lupus were those with high blood pressure and symptom flare-ups during gestation, and their complications included pregnancy loss and delivering before their due time.

According to WebMD, the pregnancy lupus study focused on 385 pregnant women with the disease and found that 81 percent of them gave birth in the right terms to babies of normal weight and no health conditions.

Science Daily reports that the pregnancy lupus study was created by the NYU Langone Medical Center and New York University School of Medicine and published on the Annals of Internal Medicine journal, under the title "Predictors of Pregnancy Outcomes in Patients With Lupus: A Cohort Study."

"This study solidifies that, for many women who are in remission or have minimal disease activity, pregnancy is not going to make their disease worse and they can have healthy babies," lead author Jill P. Buyon told MedPage Today. "But it also acknowledges, and even more importantly perhaps, that there are factors that can be identified which really help in pregnancy counseling."

For now, doctors agree that pregnancy and lupus are mostly incompatible at times where the disease is inactive.