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Women's Cardiovascular Healthcare Foundation
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Assessing your cardiovascular risk before planning a pregnancy

Assessing your cardiovascular risk before planning a pregnancy

Around 150,000 women of childbearing age are carriers of cardiovascular disease in France. If not properly managed, they run a 15-fold risk of complications for their babies, and a 100-fold risk of their own mortality.

It is essential for a woman with cardiovascular disease to be accompanied by her gynecologist, primary care physician and cardiologist, to ensure that her pregnancy is carried out in optimum safety conditions.

What are the warning signs?
- shortness of breath on exertion, persistent nausea, a feeling of exhaustion, palpitations, pain or tightness in the chest, a feeling of suffocation;
- the need to sit up to breathe properly at night;
- recent, fairly severe headaches, a sensation of bright spots in front of the eyes, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), permanent pain in the pit of the stomach, convulsions (signs of a diseased placenta);
- weight gain within a few days, associated with rapid onset of edema;
- bleeding from the uterus, with sudden onset of stomach pains (placental abruption);
- the impression that the baby is no longer moving or is moving less.
Depending on what you feel, don't wait to call 15 or 112.

But above all, consult your doctor before starting a pregnancy or at the beginning of one.


 
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