Long-term effects of multiple pregnancies on cardiac dimensions and systolic and diastolic function
Article Abstract:
Women who have borne several children may not have an increased risk of heart disease compared to women who have not had any children. Researchers performed echocardiograms on 20 healthy women who had borne at least four fullterm infants and on 20 healthy women of similar ages who had never borne children. Women who had borne children were found to have longer deceleration times of the E wave of cardiac intake, suggesting that their hearts were more elastic as a result of accommodating increases in blood volume during pregnancies. Heart chamber dimensions and systolic and diastolic blood pressures were similar between the two groups of women. Repeated rises and falls in blood volume associated with repeated states of pregnancy and nonpregnancy may not injure the human heart. These changes may make the left ventricle more elastic.
Publication Name: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0002-9378
Year: 1996
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Underappreciated risks of the elderly multipara
Article Abstract:
Pregnant women aged 35 years and older may experience more pregnancy-related health problems because of their age. Researchers studied 9556 pregnancies of 7552 women aged 20-29 years, and of 1194 women aged 35 years and older. Older pregnant women who already had children were three times more likely to have pregnancy-related high blood pressure than were younger pregnant women. Older pregnant women who given birth to children before had the highest age-related increases in risk of overdue pregnancies, labor induction, high blood pressure, pregnancy-related diabetes, need for oxytocin, and larger than normal infants. A majority of the women in the study were black (81%), poor, and residents of urban areas.
Publication Name: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0002-9378
Year: 1995
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Pregnancies after radical vaginal trachelectomy for early-stage cervical cancer
Article Abstract:
Women with early-stage cervical cancer may be able to become pregnant in the future if they have a radical vaginal trachelectomy. This is a type of surgery on the cervix that preserves fertility. Thirty Canadian women in Quebec had the operation between 1991 and 1998. Most of the women had stage I cancer. Only six tried to get pregnant after the operation but all six were successful. As of May, 1998, four had given birth to healthy babies via cesarean delivery and two were still pregnant.
Publication Name: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0002-9378
Year: 1998
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- Abstracts: Inhibin in normal and abnormal pregnancy: maternal serum concentration and partial characterization. Comparison of maternal serum total activin A and inhibin A in normal, preeclamptic, and nonproteinuric gestationally hypertensive pregnancies
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