Women who want to get pregnant later in their lives should know the risks involving their decision. They must be able to make sure that they are physically fit, and their doctors need to check for symptoms that could indicate a risk for conditions such as strokes and other cardiovascular problems.
In the recently concluded American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference, It was stated that getting pregnant and giving birth later can have a serious effect on women's health. According to Medicaldaily.com, the study led by the experts at the Zeenat Qureshi Stroke Institute in Minnesota revealed that there is a higher tendency for women who give birth in their 40s to suffer from heart attack or stroke.
The researchers studied 72,000 women, and among them, 3,300 revealed that they got pregnant later than most women. They compared the rates of stroke, heart attacks, and deaths caused by cardiovascular problems. It showed that 2.4% of women who has given birth early in their lives were at risk of ischemic stroke while 3.8% of women who got pregnant later have a chance of developing this type of stroke, The Guardian reported.
According to the lead researcher and director of the Zeenat Qureshi Stroke Institute in Minnesota, Professor Adnan Qureshi, they already have an idea that more complications are expected to develop during the pregnancy of older women.
Older mothers was also found to have a higher risk of having miscarriages as well as developing conditions such as diabetes and pre-eclampsia which can endanger both the life of the mother and the baby. However, according to The Telegraph, the number of women giving birth at the age of 40 and above has dramatically doubled in the last 15 years in England and Wales.
Although not all conditions can happen as soon as they get pregnant, there are reasons to believe that other conditions may develop years after getting pregnant.
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