Asthma should be kept under control in pregnant women. Otherwise, the risk of preeclampsia is high for the mother and that of being born prematurely or in turn developing a significant respiratory disease for the baby.
For women, pregnancy and asthma attacks don’t mix. When this disease is not well controlled, the mother is at risk of suffering from preeclampsia (high blood pressure associated with excessive protein in the urine during pregnancy) and unborn babies are not only at risk of developing asthma during their first five years of life, but also of being born prematurely, having a low birth weight or being victims of birth defects such as a heart defect or cleft lip. Consequences which could be due to the reduction in the oxygen supply of the mother, linked to her illness, which would also affect the fetus. This is demonstrated by a study carried out by a team from the Ottawa Children’s Hospital Research Center in Canada and published in the European Respiratory Journal.
This study is important because asthma would be the most common disease in pregnant women – it would affect between 8% and 13% of them – and, above all, many of them would reduce or stop their treatment during pregnancy, in fear that it will harm their unborn baby.
A 30% higher risk of preeclampsia
Data on more than 100,000 pregnancies of women living in Canada were studied between April 2003 and March 2012, including those of 2,663 women presenting with severe asthma symptoms during pregnancy (at least 5 medical visits, visits to emergency hospitals or hospital admission). The researchers took into account other factors that could affect the health of the mother or baby, such as the mother’s age, smoking habits and socioeconomic status.
This work made it possible to compare pregnant women suffering from asthma with severe symptoms and other women whose asthma was well controlled. The observation was made that the former had a 30% greater risk of suffering from preeclampsia and 17% from high blood pressure during their pregnancy.
Premature birth, underweight, risk of malformations
As for babies, those whose mothers had an asthma attack during pregnancy had a 14% higher risk of having low birth weight or being born prematurely and a 21% higher risk of having an asthma attack. birth defect. These children’s risk of being asthmatic themselves was 23% higher, with the risk of pneumonia increasing by 12%.
“This is the largest study of the risks associated with severe asthma symptoms in pregnancy and the first to show long-term impacts for children. Our results confirm the findings of smaller studies that uncontrolled asthma can be harmful to mothers and their babies,” said Dr. Teresa To, principal investigator of the study.
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