Strokes Are Quite Common In Pregnant Women: How Can They Be Prevented?
According to CDC, there has been a 54 percent increase in the number of pregnant women who’ve had strokes in 1995 to 1996 and in 2005 to 2006. While this may surprise some researchers, it certainly would not surprise clinicians who take care of pregnant women who have risk factors such as obesity, chronic hypertension or a lack of prenatal care. Ten percent of strokes occur in the first trimester, 40 percent during the second trimester and more than fifty percent occur during the post partum period and after the patient has been discharged home. Hypertension was the cause of one-third of stroke victims during pregnancy and fifty percent in the post partum period. Hypertension accounted for one-third of stroke cases during pregnancy and fifty percent in the post partum period. Many stroke cases might be prevented if blood pressure problems were treated appropriately during pregnancy.
Pregnant women who have high blood pressure during the first trimester are treated with medication and are classified as having chronic hypertension. The problem occurs when Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
