Can childbirth lead to heart failure?

Written by Zhang Lu
Obstetrics
Updated on November 07, 2024
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Childbirth refers to the delivery of a fetus through vaginal delivery or cesarean section, and it represents a significant strain on a woman’s heart. Regardless of the type of delivery, there is a possibility of leading to heart failure to some extent. Especially during the second stage of labor, pregnant women often exert greater effort, significantly increasing the load on the heart. If there is poor heart function or pre-existing cardiac disease, it could lead to heart failure. In some cases, if the heart disease is severe and cannot withstand delivery, a cesarean section must be chosen. However, cesarean delivery can also lead to heart failure, mainly due to a large amount of blood flowing back to the peripheral circulation from the uterus after the fetus is delivered, causing a significant increase in the preload on the heart and easily leading to the onset of heart failure.

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Written by Zhang Yue Mei
Cardiology
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What is a good diet for heart failure?

Heart failure is one of the most common complications of various organic heart diseases. After the onset of heart failure, it is necessary to use effective medications to treat the primary disease causing the heart failure. At the same time, methods such as cardiotonics, diuretics, and vasodilators should be used to reduce the burden on the heart as much as possible and correct heart failure in a timely manner. Patients with heart failure should rest, keep calm, and avoid overexertion in daily life. Their diet should primarily consist of low-fat and low-salt foods, and they should abstain from smoking and drinking alcohol. They should avoid spicy foods, pickled foods, and overly salty foods. Eating overly salty foods can increase blood volume, increase the burden on the heart, and worsen heart failure. (The use of medications should be conducted under the guidance of a professional doctor.)

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Written by Xie Zhi Hong
Cardiology
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Can heart failure cause suffocation?

Heart failure is caused by various reasons leading to the heart's blood supply being relatively or absolutely insufficient, causing a series of pathological and physiological disorders in patients. Patients often manifest symptoms like difficulty breathing, tightness in breath, and even a feeling of suffocation. However, generally, the symptoms caused by heart failure are not these. This is because suffocation occurs due to airway narrowing or the narrow space around the patient, leading to insufficient oxygen intake, causing a series of syndromes. Therefore, although people with heart failure feel suffocated, they are not actually suffocating; it is just a manifestation of inadequate circulatory supply.

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Written by Wang Li Bing
Intensive Care Medicine Department
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Is the heart rate fast or slow in heart failure?

Heart failure is also relatively common in clinical practice, primarily due to dysfunction in the heart's contractile or relaxation capabilities. This leads to ineffective expulsion of venous blood returning to the heart, resulting in venous congestion and a series of symptoms. Patients typically experience varying degrees of breathing difficulty, coughing, expectoration, coughing up pink frothy sputum, as well as gastrointestinal symptoms. Following the onset of heart failure, a patient's heart rate generally increases as a compensatory response to promote increased cardiac output. If a patient enters the terminal stage of heart failure, a decrease in heart rate may occur, and can even lead to death.

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Written by Wang Li Bing
Intensive Care Medicine Department
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Common causes of heart failure

Heart failure is a syndrome that occurs when various structural or functional cardiac diseases impair ventricular filling or ejection function. Once heart failure occurs, medical treatment should be sought promptly. Common causes of heart failure mainly include the following points. The first category is primary myocardial damage, which mainly includes coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, and diabetic cardiomyopathy, among others. The second major category is cardiac load, such as excessive pressure load, commonly seen in hypertension, aortic valve stenosis, pulmonary hypertension, etc.; and excessive volume load, mainly found in cardiac valve insufficiency and congenital heart disease, among others.

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Written by Wei Shi Liang
Intensive Care Unit
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Causes of acute heart failure include

Most patients with acute heart failure have a history of heart disease, and the common causes mainly include: 1. Acute myocardial necrosis or damage, such as acute coronary syndrome, peripartum cardiomyopathy, and myocardial damage caused by drugs or toxins, including sepsis-induced myocardial damage. 2. Acute exacerbation of chronic heart failure due to infection or other stressful factors. 3. Acute hemodynamic changes, mainly including conditions like cardiac tamponade, hypertensive crisis, aortic dissection, and acute valvular regurgitation, all of which can lead to acute heart failure.