Cardio-Obstetrics

Penn State Health Cardio-Obstetrics Program

Cardiovascular disease affects up to 10% of pregnancies. Pregnancy increases the workload of the heart, and for women with cardiac disease, this may raise the mother’s risk during pregnancy. The Penn State Health Cardio-Obstetrics Program takes a patient-centered, multidisciplinary and evidence-based approach, with specialists in Maternal Fetal Medicine, Cardiology, Anesthesia and specialized nursing staff, who work together to help ensure pregnancy is safe for you and your baby.

When is a cardio-obstetrics program needed?

The Penn State Health Cardio-Obstetrics Program can help pregnant patients with:

Preconception counseling in patients considered high risk for pregnancy due to preexisting cardiovascular conditions
Congenital heart disorders, or structural heart diseases that may have been present since birth, repaired and unrepaired
Diabetes, or impaired glucose metabolism (including gestational diabetes)
Hypertension, or high blood pressure (including preeclampsia and postpartum hypertension)
Arrhythmias, or irregular heart rhythms
Heart failure and cardiomyopathy (including peripartum cardiomyopathy), where the heart muscle is weak and not able to pump enough blood out to the rest of the organs
Coronary artery disease, including congenital and acquired forms
Valvular heart disease
Aortic and vascular disease, including familial or genetic aortic aneurysms, which may be at risk for tearing, called dissection
Pulmonary hypertension, or high pressures in the blood vessels of the lungs
Clotting disorders, including a clot that forms in the legs, called deep vein thrombosis and travels to the lungs, known as pulmonary embolism

In this abc27 news segment, Dr. Amanda Cai, a Penn State Health adult congenital heart disease cardiologist, discusses how a comprehensive cardio-obstetrics program helps protect women with heart disease and their babies throughout their pregnancy.

Why choose Penn State Health for cardio-obstetrics

Women with maternal cardiovascular risk do best when followed by a specialized and expert pregnancy heart team, like the Penn State Health cardio-obstetrics team. Our Cardio-Obstetrics Program combines the multidisciplinary expertise of adult cardiology and maternal-fetal medicine specialists who can see you in the same visit, reducing your need for travel and centralizing your care. You also can complete your laboratory, ultrasound and cardiac testing at the same cardio-obstetrics visit. Our team holds regular multidisciplinary conferences to discuss care plans for all high-risk patients. If needed, you have access to Penn State Health's specialized surgeons and proceduralists. Mothers deliver their babies in the supportive environment of the Penn State Health Women and Babies Center at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Here, every level of care is available for both mother and baby, including Level IV neonatal intensive care unit services and a comprehensive heart and vascular intensive care unit to provide cardiac care for mom, if necessary.

Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is home to the Penn State Health Congenital Heart Center, where we treat patients with congenital heart disease from before birth to late adulthood, all in one location. For pregnant women with ACHD, having a specialized center means all services are under one roof, from exams to testing, so you’re not spending time driving from one appointment to another.

Accredited obstetrical ultrasound facility

We offer obstetrical ultrasound with advanced imaging techniques that allow us to accurately monitor high-risk pregnancies. Our full-service fetal imaging suite has earned accreditation from the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM), an organization dedicated to promoting the use of safe and effective ultrasound. Our AIUM-certified physicians and sonographers provide detailed sonographic evaluation with targeted fetal imaging.