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Although some pregnancy complications are well documented (preeclampsia, premature birth and placenta previa, to name a few), it is unlikely that many women have considered the terrifying possibility of having heart attack during pregnancy or childbirth.
But according to a new report, the number of women who suffer a heart attack during pregnancy or within six months after giving birth seems to be increasing.
In a new study published In Mayo Clinical Proceedings, researchers examined 49.8 million births. Of the more than 55 million pregnancy-related hospitalizations identified between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2014, the study found that nearly 4,500 women had a heart attack during pregnancy, the most Delivery or within six weeks of delivery
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Of the women who gave birth, 1,061 suffered a heart attack during labor and delivery, 922 during pregnancy and 2,390 women within six months after delivery.
About 200 women died of a heart attack
The researchers found that even though the overall risk of having a heart attack was relatively low, this risk increased by 25%, which They described it as "worrying".
Among women who had a heart The hospital mortality rate was 4.5%, which, according to the researchers, was surprisingly high, since women of childbearing age are generally considered as having a low risk of heart attack
. ] "Although heart attacks in young women are rare, the time during and immediately after pregnancy is a particularly vulnerable period, during which heart disease can be unmasked," one study author, the Dr. Nathaniel Smilowitz, an interventional cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at New York University Langone Health, said Time.
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According to Live Science, it's not immediately clear what might cause the increased risk, but researchers have suggested that one possible explanation is that women have children later in life and that older women are running more risk of having a heart attack.
Compared with pregnant women in their twenties, pregnant women aged 35 to 39 are five times more likely to have heart attacks. Similarly, pregnant women between 40 and 44 were about 10 times more likely to have a heart attack during the study period.
An additional explanation of the results could be that rates of obesity and diabetes, which are risk factors The authors of the study call for greater awareness of the risk factors associated with heart disease to help improve the outcomes of pregnant women who develop the disease.
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