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Pregnancy in Adult Congenital Heart Disease

  • Congenital Heart Disease (J Deanfield, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Cardiac disease in pregnancy is a challenging health care problem. The number of cases and their complexity is increasing, such that heart disease is now the leading cause of maternal mortality in developed countries. Numerically, women with congenital heart disease (CHD) make up the majority of cases and although maternal mortality is infrequent, a good outcome is only achieved though meticulous care, which starts pre-pregnancy and continues for months after the pregnancy has ended. All women with CHD should be assessed and counseled before pregnancy and carefully monitored during pregnancy, the delivery and in the puerperium. In most cases, pregnancy is well tolerated but in some conditions, such as pulmonary hypertension or severe dilatation of the aorta, pregnancy is extremely high risk and should be advised against.

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Conflict of Interest

J.W. Roos-Hesselink, P.T.E. Ruys, and M.R. Johnson declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Office Ba 583a, Postbus 2040, 3000 CA, Rotterdam, Netherlands

    J. W. Roos-Hesselink & P. T. E. Ruys

  2. Imperial College London, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, UK

    M. R. Johnson

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  1. J. W. Roos-Hesselink
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  2. P. T. E. Ruys
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  3. M. R. Johnson
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Correspondence to J. W. Roos-Hesselink.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Congenital Heart Disease

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Roos-Hesselink, J.W., Ruys, P.T.E. & Johnson, M.R. Pregnancy in Adult Congenital Heart Disease. Curr Cardiol Rep 15, 401 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-013-0401-3

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