AMRI provides you with all of the tools to successfully complete your PALS recertification. Our course is fast and flexible. Renew your PALS Certification today!
Obesity, inactivity, and delaying pregnancy until later in life are three factors leading to an increase in strokes among pregnant women. An article published this week in The New York Times cites a 61.5 percent increase in strokes in pregnant women between the mid-1990s and 2011. The rate of stroke increased more than 100 percent for pregnant women who had high blood pressure or a related condition like pre-eclampsia.
According to the article, health care providers should educate patients with high blood pressure about their increased risk for having a stroke if they get pregnant before getting their hypertension under control. Although pregnancy may be a cause for the increased risk of stroke, for some women, delivering the baby does not take away the risk as once believed.
Dr. George Saade, director of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, says in the article, “We used to think after delivery, women get better. Now we are seeing more of these patients who had a type of hypertension during pregnancy showing up days or weeks later with complications.”
Alarmed by the dramatic increase, the United States Preventive Services Task Force and other advocacy groups, are calling for more proactive treatment of high blood pressure in pregnant women.
Read the entire article to learn more.
Image credit: J.K. Califf
