FAQ: Pregnancy Complications and Your Heart
Sept. 22, 2015 -- You may have seen headlines linking pregnancy complications such as high blood pressure and early delivery to a later risk of dying from heart disease.
In a study published Monday, researchers found a link between the two -- and said the risk of later heart-disease death rises with more than one complication.
While it may sound scary, experts say there’s no reason to panic.
WebMD asked a study author and a women's heart-health expert what else is crucial to know about the research.
What did the study look at, and what were the major findings?
Researchers looked at data gathered from nearly 15,000 women who became pregnant from 1958 to 1967, when most were in their mid-20s. They followed them through 2011 and noted which women had pregnancy complications. They found a link to death from heart disease before age 60.
Pregnancy complications that raised the risk included:
- Having high blood pressure before or having it start during pregnancy (preeclampsia)
- Having a low-birth-weight child
- Delivering early
- Having a drop in the ability of red blood cells to carry oxygen
- High sugar levels in the urine
All boosted the risk of dying from heart disease before 60, says study senior author Barbara A. Cohn, PhD, director of the Child Health and Development Studies at the Public Health Institute. Having more than one complication raised the risk even more. Depending on the complication, and the number of them, the risk of death increased by nearly two to seven times.
Why do preeclampsia and other complications set you up for heart disease?
The complications aren’t the cause of the problem, Cohn says. "They may be an indicator or predictor of how well a woman's cardiovascular system can adjust to the demands of pregnancy." Those demands are considerable, she says. "The heart has to work harder," she says, to pump enough blood throughout the body and to the unborn baby, as a woman’s blood volume doubles during pregnancy.
Pregnancy is truly a ''metabolic stress test,'' says Suzanne Steinbaum, DO, director of Women's Heart Health at Lenox Hill Hospital. "It really gives you an understanding of your entire body and how well it is functioning."