Are you a mom with four or more kids?

"All unpleasant things end happily." if anyone needs proof for this, there cannot be something better than pregnancy and childbirth. All those extra hormones that cause the morning sickness, nausea, leg cramps initially do cause a glow and strength to the mother-to-be as the pregnancy progresses. Pregnancy and lactation do prevent ovarian and breast cancer in women. A woman gains lot of confidence after labor for having accomplished one of the toughest ordeals of life. More than anything, it is the "nature's stress test."

Pregnancy stresses the heart and circulatory system. During pregnancy, the blood volume increases by 30 to 50 % in order to nourish the growing baby. The amount of blood pumped by the heart each minute also increases by 30 to 50 % in a normal pregnancy. The heart rate also increases and all these makes the heart work harder. The labor and delivery still adds to this workload. So, anyone with a pre-existing heart condition needs to be dealt with carefully during pregnancy and a woman can develop new cardiac problems during and after pregnancy. However, the hormone estrogen is considered protective to the heart, which circulates in more amounts during pregnancy.

An earlier study had suggested that older women who lose estrogen during menopause could benefit if they had been pregnant for four or more times because of the more estrogen circulation that they had. Hence the study said that they were only half as likely to die from stroke than those with fewer or no pregnancies.

But, what does the recent study tell? Higher number of child-births may impair a woman's heart function. Surprisingly, this was true for women with no or one baby too! A research paper from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has found that women who give birth to four or more children are more likely to develop plaque in their heart or thickened arteries initiating cardiovascular disease. This paper will be presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. However, the lead researcher Dr Monika Sanghavi says,"This is not a recommendation for women to only have two or three children." She also says that "there is a growing body of evidence that changes associated with pregnancy deserves further attention."

This study included 1,644 women from the Dallas Heart Study (average age of 45 years). Women with two or three babies were used as reference point.

Anyway, in the current economic setup not many four-plus moms around! If you are one, stay attentive to your health parameters.

Watch the informational Video: Pregnancy and Heart Disease !

Give me four years to teach ...

 

“Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.”

—Vladimir Lenin