Here’s why a heart health check-up is essential before pregnancy

If you are trying to get pregnant then this new research finding will be of great use to you. Researchers in the US have found that women who are at a higher risk of heart diseases are also faced with a higher risk of adverse outcomes in their pregnancy.

Published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, the study suggests a possible link between cardiovascular and maternal health. The research team assessed data from over 18,000,000 pregnancies for women aged between 15 and 44 years, taking into account cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, self-reported smoking, and being either underweight or overweight.

The team found that the risk factors contributed to a higher chance of complications like pre-term birth, low birth weight, and fetal death.

With every additional cardiovascular risk factor, the research team observed there was a graded and consistently higher risk for each of the pregnancy complications. Making matters worse, more than 50% of the women studied were found to be living with at least one of the risk factors and younger women had a tendency to be unaware of their own cardiovascular disease risk.

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According to experts, heart health should be considered an essential feature of pregnancy health check-ups. In fact, the team says a comprehensive cardiovascular assessment before pregnancy should be the standard for people across all age groups.

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