There
is a growing risk of having a heart attack during pregnancy and child birth as
the number of expectant women with heart, complications surge both in Uganda
and across the world.
Although pregnancy carries some risk for all women, Medics from the Uganda
Heart Institute say that the risk for both mother and child becomes even bigger
for those with heart problems.
The
doctors add that they are now receiving more expectant women suffering from
Pulmonary Artery Hypertension, Rheumatic Heart Disease, Coronary Artery Disease
and Abnormal Heart Murmurs.
Pulmonary Artery Hypertension-a condition comprising of high blood pressure in
the arteries that go from the heart to the lungs is the commonest detected
among pregnant women. Others have suffered the weakening the heart muscle,
especially during the last month of pregnancy.
Dr John Omagino, the Executive Director of the Uganda Heart Institute says that
the increase is mainly due to lifestyles coupled with the failure by women to
detect conditions long before the pregnancy cycle.
Recent research conducted by New York University School of Medicine
researchers, also suggested the risk of having a heart attack during pregnancy
rises as women get older.
“A woman between the ages of 35 to 39 who becomes pregnant is five times
more likely to suffer a heart attack than a woman in her 20s, and women in
their early 40s are 10 times more at risk than women in their 20s,” the
research established.
“People are sick but some of them do not know they have heart diseases but
even those who know cannot access treatment at times,” Dr Omagino said. He
estimates that more than 500 pregnant women in Uganda have underlying heart
problems, some of which have never been detected.
According to doctors, if women do not receive treatment during the duration of
their pregnancy, child birth is likely to weaken their hearts more and lead to
death.
The World Health Organization estimates that 40 percent of pregnant women, who
suffer from heart diseases globally, die as a result of having both
complications.
Prof. Karen Sliwa, the director of the Hatter Institute for Cardiovascular
Research in Africa observes that the condition affects the development of the
fetus which could lead to heart diseases in a child or premature births if it
goes untreated.
Prof. Sliwa equally decries the high number of deaths to the poor diagnosis of
heart complications.
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