Experts urge precaution before pregnancy against heart disease risks

With the adoption of the universal two-child policy in China, the number of pregnant women with complications such as heart diseases is increasing rapidly, resulting doctors calling for those with higher pregnancy risks to think twice before getting pregnant.

"Five years ago, about 10 percent of all the pregnant women having birth at our hospital had cardiovascular diseases, but the ratio is close to 30 percent this year," Yu Liqun, publicity chief of Beijing Anzhen Hospital, a top hospital specializing in cardiovascular diseases in China, said.

Gu Hong, a pediatrician in heart diseases at the hospital, said last year the hospital received about 150 pregnant women with heart diseases, and this year the number may exceed 180.

Women at older ages are at higher pregnancy risks, and the chances of complications increase with ages, Liu Wenxian, a cardiologist at the hospital, said.

About 90 million women are newly made eligible to have a second child after China adopted the universal two-child policy at the beginning of the year, and half of them are more than 40 years old, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

In the first half of the year some doctors in the hospital had to end pregnancy to some pregnant women in the hospital who had serious heart diseases so they will not lose life, Gu said.

"Some patients did not have pre-pregnancy check-ups and insist on getting pregnant at high risks to get a baby or the second one," she said. "We want people to know that not all women are suitable to give birth. Those pregnant and with serious heart diseases may put their own life at risk, and they may give birth to unhealthy child."

Zhu Junming, a cardiologist at Anzhun hospital, suggest all women have check-ups before pregnancy so they can follow the doctors’ advice and take enough precautionary measures.