Cardiologist Ari Cedars discusses the Johns Hopkins’ Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) program’s approach to treating women with ACHD before and during pregnancy.
Yeah, women with congenital heart disease ideally should be evaluated prior to becoming pregnant when they're thinking about pregnancy. This can avoid problems down the road with medications, which could be potentially toxic to the fetus, or heart problems, which could be problematic for the pregnancy later on. At Johns Hopkins, we offer women the unique opportunity to see a combined multi disciplinary team, including both maternal fetal medicine specialists and adult congenital heart disease cardiologists. That way, they get multi disciplinary care with input from the most specialized of physicians to make sure their pregnancy proceeds as smoothly as possible. Women with congenital heart disease have a much greater probability of having complications related to their heart disease during pregnancy as a result of the stress that pregnancy poses on the cardiovascular system. Seeing an adult congenital heart disease specialists both before and during pregnancy can help anticipate these problems and treat them should they arise. The adult congenital heart disease program at Johns Hopkins offers our pregnant patients with congenital heart disease the opportunity to see congenital heart disease specialists and maternal fetal medicine specialist at the same time and in the same setting. This decreases the number of appointments that women may need to have. And it also improves communication between the sub specialty providers to ensure optimal pregnancy outcomes. Thank you do.
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