SAN ANTONIO — February is heart month and the perfect time for you to learn about your heart health. An unhealthy heart could seriously complicate pregnancy.
During pregnancy, your blood volume increases by up to 50 percent to nourish your growing baby making your heart pump more blood and your heart rate go up. Labor and delivery make the heart's workload even higher. For women with a heart condition, the risk of complications goes up too.
"I have what's called an ASD, it's an atrial septal defect. So the top two chambers of my heart have a whole wish in-utero for babies that's normal but when you come out of the womb typically it closes within a week," said registered nurse Amanda Campos, who found out she was pregnant last Spring. She told us, "Not only with a heart condition but I also found out that I have a little bit of preeclampsia."
She knew her pregnancy would be anything but normal. Campos said, "With most pregnancies, there isn't the need to have a cardiology team on standby."
"Sometimes, even if they may know that that would put a risk for their health, they would try to put the family ahead and they would choose to have a baby," said Dr. Ildiko Agoston, a professor of medicine at UT Health San Antonio who sees Campos as one of her patients within the University Health System.
She says data from 2016 on about cardiovascular mortality in childbearing age women is alarming. Dr. Agoston added, "It's been very disturbing for us as physicians to find out that a lot of women die of heart disease and heart disease-related conditions in the peripartum time."
Campos isn't too concerned about her situation but knows the risks and told us, "Because of the hole in my heart I am at a higher risk of having a stroke."
For other expectant mothers with heart problems, Dr. Agoston says communication with your doctor is a must. She said, "This is why I personally take every opportunity whenever I can touch our women's lives by saying something about this condition."
For more information about family health call 210-358-3045. You can also find the rest of Wear The Gown stories, visit Wear The Gown's website.
For more information on heart health in women, click the video below:
