(Reuters Health) - The majority of women with congenital heart defects can safely become pregnant and give birth to healthy babies, a new study in Germany suggests.
In an analysis of administrative data on 7,512 pregnancies in 4,015 women with congenital heart disease (CHD), researchers found that rates of maternal and neonatal complications were higher than in a matched control group, but absolute rates were still low and there were no maternal deaths. There was a small increased risk of stillbirths or neonatal deaths among women with CHD, and a six-fold higher rate of recurrence of CHD in infants, according to the report published in the European Heart Journal.
"The study is a message of hope," said first author Dr. Astrid Lammers, a consultant pediatric cardiologist at Muenster University Hospital. "Only 50 years ago, 85% of children born with congenital heart disease would die before reaching adulthood. Today well over 90% survive to adulthood and many reach old age."
The study results illustrate "that treated women with congenital heart disease - arguably one of the most severe forms of heart disease - can get through pregnancy and have a family of their own," Dr. Lammers added. "These reassuring results are a testimony to the advances in congenital cardiology and cardiac surgery that allows most women with congenital heart defects to survive and live relatively normal lives."
