A heart attack is a condition where doctors look to minimize the damage by offering medical treatment to their patients. However, pregnant women are a special type of audience, because most of the pills prescribed for heart disease aren’t safe to take during the pregnancy. This makes it more complicated to manage a heart attack in women who are expecting.
1. Preeclampsia is a risk factor
It’s quite normal for pregnant women to experience elevated blood pressure during their pregnancy. However, if this blood pressure gets out of control, they could end up with signs of damage in organs such as the kidneys or the liver. This complication is characteristic of pregnancy, and it’s known as preeclampsia.
Preeclampsia is a condition that usually appears 20 weeks into the pregnancy, even if your blood pressure was normal up until that point. Unless it is treated, preeclampsia could be fatal to both the mother and the child.
Pregnant women with preeclampsia are more likely to have a heart attack compared to those who don’t. Other risk factors for a heart attack in pregnancy include obesity, being older than 40, a history of heart disease, and being African-American (studies have shown that African-American women are four times more likely to end up with heart disease).
2. The risk of a heart attack during pregnancy rises with age
Even among women who are not pregnant, age is a risk factor for heart disease. Naturally, the risk of heart attacks during pregnancy also rises with age. Specifically, women who are aged between 35 and 39 are five times more likely to have a heart attack than women in their 20s.
As women grow older, this risk increases even further. Studies have shown that pregnant women in their early 40s are 10 times more likely to have a heart attack than pregnant women in their 20s.
Researchers believe that this increase could also be due to medical advancement, which now makes it easier to diagnose a heart attack compared to ten years ago.
3. Some symptoms may be normal
Certain signs associated with cardiovascular disease might be normal during pregnancy. It’s not uncommon for pregnant women to have elevated blood pressure. Other symptoms that are normal during pregnancy include fatigue, palpitations, or a sense of fainting.
For example, women who experience shortness of breath might do so because the enlarging uterus has a mechanical effect as the pregnancy develops. Palpitations, on the other hand, can occur because there is a shift in the diaphragm, as it goes up during pregnancy. This eventually causes the heart to sit higher in the chest, which is why pregnant women become more aware of their heart beating (normally, a beating heart is much like breathing. something that naturally occurs without us being fully aware of it).
4. Irregular heartbeats don’t always signal a heart attack
Heart murmurs can be a symptom of a heart attack, but they can also be normal during pregnancy. It turns out that about 90 percent of women who are expecting to develop a heart murmur. This happens because blood volume is increased during pregnancy.
This can trigger irregular heartbeats that normally warn people of a heart attack. However, since there is no way of knowing if irregular heartbeats are a cause for concern or just a normal pregnancy occurrence, you will need a specific cardiac test to rule out the possibility of a heart attack.
5. Planning a pregnancy requires cardiac assessment
Women who suffer from a heart condition need to be evaluated by a cardiologist if they plan on getting pregnant. The entire process has to evaluate:
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol levels
- Blood vessel disease
- Previous cardiac events
- Ejection fraction loss (the amount of blood that the left ventricle pumps with each heartbeat)
- Abnormal heart rhythm
The main mission of the cardiologist is to perform all tests required and inquire about your personal and family medical history to see if you have a heart condition that might prevent a successful pregnancy. After the evaluation is complete, the doctor will lay out your current situation, and explain the potential complications that might appear during pregnancy.
6. Heart attacks during pregnancy are rare
This is a very important to keep in mind, as long as you don’t neglect the fact that they are possible, so you should still take all the measures required to avoid them. To help prevent a heart attack, always:
- Keep an eye on your diet, eat foods that aren’t fat or rich in cholesterol, and consume plenty of food high in good cholesterol, such as fish, olive oil, or nuts.
- Exercise according to what your cardiologist recommends. You won’t be able to run a mile when you’re 8 months pregnant, but a daily evening walk can do wonder for your heart health.
- Avoid smoking altogether.
Conclusion
Even if heart attacks during pregnancy aren’t a regular thing, you should still take all the necessary measures to avoid one. Keep in mind that they have recently become more common, probably because a lot of women are now older when they get pregnant.
Remember that age is a risk factor for heart disease even in women who aren’t pregnant, so it’s important that, if you plan your pregnancy, you consult a cardiologist to assess your heart’s health, especially if you have a family history of heart disease or have suffered a heart attack in the past.
- Photo courtesy of SteadyHealth
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