Heart-related health problems might affect as many as 1 in 7 pregnancies, even among women without any prior heart disease, a new study says.
Researchers found a steady increase in heart-related health problems among more than 56,000 pregnancies between 2001 and 2019 in New England.
Heart attack, stroke, heart failure, blood clots, high blood pressure and heart-related maternal death affected about 15% of pregnancies during that time, researchers reported Monday in the journal Circulation.
"Our findings showcase an alarming trend of rising real-world burden of pregnancy-related cardiovascular complications and highlights pregnancy from preconception to the postpartum period as a crucial window of opportunity to implement primary prevention strategies and optimize cardiovascular health," concluded a team led by Dr. Emily Lau, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
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