Women with congenital heart disease (CHD) involved in a large Swedish survey were more likely to give birth to premature or underweight babies compared to women without CHD.

The research also showed babies born to women with CHD were more often delivered by caesarean section. Women who had CHD were more likely to have been born prematurely or underweight themselves.

A fourth set of findings showed mothers of women with CHD were more often single, unmarried or older, compared to their counterparts without CHD.

Ellen Mason, Senior Cardiac Nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "There is a danger that we incorrectly interpret the findings of this study and blame babies' heart defects on mothers who are older or single, or who have a heart condition themselves.

"Although this research has some interesting findings, it was not designed to tell us exactly why women with a congenital heart defect were born prematurely or underweight. It does confirm the slightly increased risk for a woman with a heart defect herself having a child with a defect, but the women involved were still statistically much more likely to have a healthy baby.

"We still don't know exactly why each year in the UK around one in every 145 children is born with a heart defect. Women with complex heart conditions should be cared for by a cardiologist with skills in maternal cardiology and monitored carefully. As a result, many women with a heart condition will be able to have a completely healthy baby."

The survey was published in a Nordic journal of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive health. The findings included data collected from nearly 190,000 women born in Sweden between 1973 and 1983.

Source
The British Heart Foundation