Pregnancy and Your Heart: What Expectant Mothers Need to Know
When you’re expecting, you’ve got a lot on your mind—baby names, nursery colors, and, of course—the health of your baby. What you may not think about are heart problems down the road. Here’s what expectant moms need to know about their heart health.
Your Heart During Pregnancy
When you are pregnant, the volume of blood in your body rises, and your heart has to work harder. Your cholesterol also may go up—about 30%—according to a study in Circulation Journal. These changes don’t seem to affect your long-term heart health.Some changes, however, are serious. Take high blood sugar, or gestational diabetes, which affects about 5% of pregnant women in the United States. It can lead to complications during pregnancy and raise your risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. Type 2 diabetes, in turn, increases your future risk for heart disease.
Another concern is high blood pressure. If you have high blood pressure during pregnancy, it could harm your kidneys and other organs. It also might cause you to deliver early.
High blood pressure, along with protein in the urine, also is a mark of a more serious risk: preeclampsia. This condition occurs frequently in women who are older than age 40 and women who had high blood pressure before they were pregnant. Preeclampsia raises the risk for pregnancy complications, including stillbirth.
Teaming Up with Your Doctor
If you are diagnosed with high blood pressure or high blood sugar during pregnancy, your doctor can develop a treatment plan to keep you and your baby as healthy as possible.After pregnancy, it’s important to keep seeing your doctor, especially if you had complications. That’s because problems like gestational diabetes and preeclampsia can double your risk for heart disease and stroke. Losing extra weight, exercising, and eating well can help protect your heart in the future.
