Modern lifestyle puts pregnant women at greater risk of heart attack

Strain: More hectic lifestyles are putting pregnant women at higher risk of a heart attack

New research has revealed that pregnant women are three times more likely to have a heart attack than other women. Doctors are warning women that the risk of having a heart attack during pregnancy is rising because pregnancy is often delayed until later in life. The physical strain of more hectic modern lifestyles such as continuing to work full-time late into pregnancy is also a factor.

Although heart attacks during pregnancy and in labour are still low the researchers say the risk is still unacceptably high.

Researchers who carried out the study said doctors tended to ignore the risk of heart attack in pregnancy.

Professor Arie Roth from the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University and his colleague Professor  Uri Elkayam from the University of Southern California said the risk could be cut by reducing blood pressure, stopping smoking and maintaining a healthy weight.

Despite warnings around 20 per cent of women in the UK still smoke through pregnancy.

The research, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, looked at data collected from 228 pregnant heart attack patients.  

The study is the first broad-based research to assess the phenomenon, providing guidance to doctors who are treating pregnant women.

 "While most physicians assume that pregnant women are healthy to begin with, we wanted to emphasize to them that higher risk of heart attacks is very real," said Professor Roth, a leading cardiologist.

"Women can experience multiple symptoms during pregnancy, and a predisposition to heart disease is often overlooked." 

"Doctors have always wanted to know what causes heart attacks in pregnant women," said Professor Roth.

"The risk factors are the same as those for non-pregnant women: smoking while taking birth-control pills, drug abuse, high blood pressure, and being overweight.

The greatest risk is to expectant mothers who continued to smoke while taking birth-control pills before pregnancy. 

This is 'the straw that breaks the camel's back'. Also, maintaining a modern lifestyle with a hectic work routine while pregnant can also exaggerate the risk.

 "The pregnancy "load" causes hormonal changes and ups the odds for blood clots to form and stop the heart."

Although the chances of having a heart attack while pregnant are still slim - about 6 in every 100,000 - Professor Roth said that women can cut their risk factor even more by giving birth at a hospital, not at home. "