| Abstract: | Cardiac disease remains the leading cause of maternal mortality in the UK. Pregnant patients with high-risk cardiac conditions should be managed by a multidisciplinary cardio-obstetrics team comprising a high-risk obstetrician, cardiologist, and an anaesthetist in a tertiary centre. Preconception counselling is necessary to highlight individual maternal, fetal and cardiac risks. Anaesthetists as peripartum physicians need to comprehend the haemodynamic changes occurring during pregnancy, labour and postpartum in pregnant patients with cardiac conditions that may result in haemodynamic compromise. Individualized patient care plans that incorporate risk-stratification, advice on timing, location, mode of delivery, haemodynamic monitoring, use of uterotonics, recommended analgesia/anaesthesia techniques along with postpartum follow-up are recommended to optimize maternal and fetal outcomes. |
