The woman's entire body is transformed during pregnancy, and the heart is no exception. During the period of pregnancy, the work demands of the heart increase due to the increase in blood volume in the woman's organism.
Cardiac output (volume of blood that pumps the heart per minute) grows by about 50%. At the end of pregnancy the uterus receives a fifth of the total blood volume. As a consequence, the heart rate, that is, the number of beats per minute, increases at rest. Go from 60-70 beats / minute to 80-90. Blood pressure usually decreases.
All these physiological changes occur to maintain the viability of pregnancy and the fetus and demand that the woman's body be as well prepared and as healthy as possible.
Generally, the woman's heart is prepared to face this change situation Therefore, this organ well supports this overload, which is even believed to be beneficial, since the cardiovascular changes recorded during pregnancy resemble those in athletes.
Pregnancy could be a kind of training after which the woman would be more prepared to resist pernicious situations for the heart in the future.
Although on some occasions the maternal heart can leave a pregnancy badly, both women who suffer from heart disease and those who develop a disorder during the nine months of gestation.
For example, complications such as heart disease or congenital heart disease can occur, such as the rare disease we talked about a few days ago, peripartum cardiomyopathy.
For help the heart function properly during pregnancy the woman has to control the blood pressure, since there are women who by nature have high blood pressure on a regular basis.
A quiet life, eliminate stress, exercise moderately, reduce the consumption of salt and fat, avoid harmful stimulants such as coffee and tobacco ... are measures that prevent an increase in heart pressure That could be dangerous.
