Contents:
- Medical Video: Mother Delivers Baby, Develops Heart Failure
- Why can pregnant women experience peripartum cardiomyopathy?
- Prevent heart disease during pregnancy such as peripartum cardiomyopathy
- 1. Perform routine checks
- 2. Eat fish
- 3. Eating more fiber
- 4. Reducing consumption of saturated fats
- 5. Get enough sleep every day
- 6. Maintain blood pressure
- 7. Prevent diabetes
- 8. Stop smoking
- 9. Exercise regularly
Medical Video: Mother Delivers Baby, Develops Heart Failure
Peripartum cardiomyopathy is a rare heart muscle disorder. This condition usually occurs in women at the end of pregnancy or it can also occur in five months after giving birth. Until now, it is not known exactly what caused it. So, how to prevent heart disease while pregnant? Here's the review.
Why can pregnant women experience peripartum cardiomyopathy?
Until now what has not been found is the cause of peripartum cardiomyopathy. However, as reported by American Heart Association, this condition is believed to occur because of the heavy performance of the heart muscle. During pregnancy, the heart muscle will pump blood up to 50 percent more than the heart's work in general when a woman is not pregnant.
This is because your body has an additional burden in the form of a fetus that must get a supply of oxygen and important nutrients through the mother's bloodstream. The risk of heart muscle abnormalities during pregnancy also increases due to various factors.
How often heart complications like this happens to maternity women? Luckily not too often. Peripartum cardiomyopathy occurs in 1 in 3,000 deliveries. As many as 80 percent of these cases occur within three months after giving birth, 10 percent occur in the last month of pregnancy, and the remaining 10 percent occur between the fourth and fifth months of pregnancy. This disease can occur in women of any age, but most often in their 30s.
Prevent heart disease during pregnancy such as peripartum cardiomyopathy
1. Perform routine checks
Pregnancy test is a mandatory agenda that must be done by a pregnant woman. One of them is useful for preventing heart disease while pregnant. With regular checks, the doctor can monitor the condition of your health and the baby in the womb.
Ideally you should spend a month at a time to see a doctor during the first six months of pregnancy. When entering the age of seven and eight months of pregnancy, check every two weeks. The intensity of the visit is increased to once a week when the pregnancy reaches the age of nine months.
The doctor will usually do a physical test. This test consists of checking your body weight and height, blood pressure, breast, heart and lung conditions. It is likely that the doctor will examine the vagina, uterus and cervix to find out if there is an abnormality in your pregnancy.
2. Eat fish
Pregnant women should often eat foods that contain omega-3 fatty acids to help prevent heart disease during pregnancy. Fish as a nutritious food source include rich in omega-3 fatty acids. You can choose sardines, tuna or salmon.
Taking it twice a week on a regular basis is sufficient for omega-3 fats. However, make sure you eat fish that is completely cooked, huh!
3. Eating more fiber
Pregnant women should eat lots of fiber. Fiber can be obtained from wheat and cereals, vegetables and fruits, as well as potatoes eaten with the skin. Eating more fiber can help reduce the risk of heart disease during pregnancy. Fill your fiber needs at least 30 grams per day.
It should also be noted that regular consumption of fibrous foods must be done in stages. It's better not to immediately consume lots of vegetables at once because it can actually cause constipation (difficulty defecating)or stomach cramps. It is advisable to balance combinations with other nutrients that are equally important. Don't forget to consume enough fluids to help the digestive process.
4. Reducing consumption of saturated fats
Saturated fat and trans fat play a large role in the formation of excessive cholesterol in the blood. Cholesterol that accumulates has the potential to clog the heart arteries, which endanger the blood flow. Therefore, limit consumption of saturated fats from red meat, processed foods, fried foods, and high-fat dairy products.
5. Get enough sleep every day
Adults with sufficient sleep and quality have better arterial conditions than people who lack sleep. If the condition of the arteries is good, the heart can be helped to avoid disease.
6. Maintain blood pressure
Keep your blood pressure too high during pregnancy. High blood pressure can damage the artery wall and cause scar tissue. If this happens, blood and oxygen will be more difficult to flow from and towards the liver so that the heart must work harder so that the organs of the body do not lack oxygen.
Managing stress, exercising regularly, reducing salt intake, and not drinking alcoholic drinks are some of the ways you can do it maintain blood pressure and prevent heart disease while pregnant.
7. Prevent diabetes
Condition high blood sugar in the body also has the potential to make you at risk of heart disease during pregnancy. Because, when blood sugar levels are high, this can cause damage to the arteries. Therefore, always check your blood sugar levels, especially if you are over 45 years old, are pregnant, and are overweight (obesity) To avoid diabetes, change your lifestyle to be healthier.
8. Stop smoking
This step is the best thing you can do if you want to avoid heart disease during pregnancy. Smoke become one of the main causes of coronary heart disease. If you manage to quit smoking for one year, the risk of getting heart disease will drop to half the risk in active smokers.
Women who want to work on a pregnancy should also stop smoking right now, don't wait until pregnancy starts to reduce smoking.
9. Exercise regularly
Being physically active or exercising regularly can reduce the risk of heart disease during pregnancy. You only need to do moderate intensity exercise for approximately 30 minutes five times a day or 150 minutes for a week.
