Acute Medicine | Multidisciplinary Approaches to Maternal Health | The cardiovascular system and hypertension

The cardiovascular system and hypertension
This session will cover cardiology and hypertensive disease in pregnancy including preconception care, pregnancy-related physiology and maternal health during pregnancy and postpartum.

At the end of this session, you should be able to:

• explain the normal physiological changes that occur during pregnancy within the cardiovascular system and how this correlates to 'normal' features observed in pregnancy and accepted normal result ranges in pregnancy and postpartum
• describe the important considerations of pre-conception care and how chronic disease can impact a healthy pregnancy including:
  • blood pressure management
  • chronic ischaemic heart disease
• develop a systematic approach to diagnosing and investigating acute medical problems that may develop during pregnancy or postpartum. You should be able to recognise the ‘red flag’ features and have the basic knowledge of how to treat and escalate the care of a pregnant woman affected by:
  • acute coronary syndrome
  • aortic dissection
  • cardiomyopathy