Healthcare professionals are encountering more and
more women with cardiac conditions contemplating pregnancy
or when pregnant than ever before. Advances in
surgical treatment of congenital cardiac anomalies mean
many more women are now reaching childbearing age and
contemplating pregnancy than would hitherto have been
seen.
Due to the fact that Irish figures have not been available
thus far on the effects of cardiac disease on pregnancy and
vice versa, we have come to rely on statistics from our nearest
neighbour the UK. The Centre for Maternal and Child
Enquiries (CMACE) is an independent charity. Its mission
is to improve the health of mothers, babies and children by
carrying out confidential enquiries and other related work
on a UK wide basis and widely disseminating the results. It
produces a report every three years into maternal fatalities
in the previous three-year period. The most recent report
was published in 2007, reflecting the deaths that occurred
in 2002-2005. In the most recent CMACE triennial report
into maternal mortality (2002-2005) for the first time cardiac
disease was found to be the leading cause of maternal
death among women in the UK, with a maternal mortality
rate for heart disease of 2.27 per 100,000 maternities.