Cardiac disease in pregnancy: What nurses need to know
- Nursing & Care Open Access Journal
-
<p class="MsoNormal">Linda R Chambliss<sup>1,2</sup></p><div><br></div>
PDF Full Text
Abstract
Pregnancy is a time of significant physiological changes. Perhaps the most significant
changes are in the cardiovascular system. Obstetrical providers are seeing more and more
patients with heart disease as the obesity epidemic has increased the risk of hypertension,
more children with congenital cardiac defects are surviving to adulthood and more women
are becoming pregnant at older ages. Providers need to understand the changes in cardiac
physiology in pregnancy to best care for these patients. Maternal mortality due to direct
obstetrical causes such as hemorrhage are decreasing but deaths due to co-existing diseases
are increasing and most deaths due to cardiac disease are thought to be preventable.
Keywords
pregnancy, heart disease, physiology
