Effects of Heart disease in Pregnancy

About one in a hundred pregnant woman may suffer from heart disease. Most of such diseases have rheumatic origin, monopoly being that of mitral stenosis. The next group is congenital heart disease. The next group is congenital heart disease. Every woman with a known heart disease must consult her doctor before rushing into pregnancy. Later, she should remain under strict antenatal care. What causes worst difficulties in such cases is development of heart failure. A major objective of antenatal checkup is to prevent it and, if that does not work, at least to diagnose it early so that prompt treatment can be given. All pregnant women with heart disease should be hospitalized after 34th week in mild cases and 39th week in moderate to advanced cases. When failure is present, immediate hospitalisation, irrespective of the stage of pregnancy is recommended. It is practice on the part of the obstetricians to manage such cases in consultation with a physician, preferably a cardiologist. It is a common experience that complete bed rest, a few weeks before the expected the date of delivery, goes a long way in ensuring relatively safe delivery at the time of labour. In most cases normal delivery is considered the best.