Successful Pregnancy in Patients with Diabetes Following Myocardial Infarction

EDITORIAL COMMENT: We accepted this paper for publication to remind readers that women in Australia with severe medical disease, which in the past would be considered grounds for sterilization or even termination of pregnancy (Case 2) now expect or hope to tackle pregnancy successfully. It will be a challenge for obstetricians to maintain the maternal mortality rate in Australia at 1 in 7,860 births with current expectations of low and high-risk mothers (A). In Case 2 the mother died more than 6 weeks after delivery and so would not be classified as a maternal death. Such cases explain why Henry et al have discussed the value of the maternal mortality definition being changed to include all deaths of women dying within 1 year of confinement (B). This paper informs us that women with a past history of significant myocardial infarction can cope safely with pregnancy and the puerperium.

• (A) 

  Report on Maternal Deaths in Australia, 1988–1990.
• (A) 

  Henry OA, Sheedy MT, Beischer NA. When is a maternal death a maternal death? A review of maternal deaths at the Mercy Maternity Hospital, Melbourne, M J Aust 1989; 151:629–631. Also editorial comment, same issue, 615–616.

Summary: Two cases of successful pregnancy are described in insulin-dependent diabetic patients following myocardial infarction. Both mothers survived the pregnancies but 1 died from presumed cardiovascular causes 3 months postpartum. The relevant current literature is reviewed.