Okay, here's the thing... you need to get your heart screened up
by an Echocardiography (ECHO) and have an ECG (Electrocardiogram)
done. Also, get a Chest X Ray (CXR) done as well. These are the
basic most investigations to see how severe your heart condition
is.
You seem to be normal, hence you are normal. But considering
pregnancy in the future, prior to entering the course of it, you
need to know the risk you have to take. The body undergoes enormous
physiological changes during pregnancy, your blood volume goes up,
your hemoglobin levels come down, your kidney has to work extra
hard, your heart has to pump all the excess blood volume around the
body to supply sufficient substances (oxygen, toxins and nutrients)
to and away from you and your baby.
The heart is under severe stress during pregnancy and this is where
all the symptoms you have not been having, will start to appear one
by one causing a lot of distress. From shortness of breath, to
awakening at night because of lack of air, to gross leg swelling,
racing heart beat, chest tightness and cyanosis, all of these will
accentuate itself as the heart is burdened. This is even worse
during labor where the uterus has to contract at a great force to
expel the baby out and when the placenta is retrieved, the bleeding
will be often more severe as there is an autonomous regulation of
blood flow back to your heart after constriction of all the blood
vessels in the placenta (the placenta is an organ that has a lot of
such blood vessels to feed your baby while in the womb). Such
enormous blood flow channeled back to your heart will strain up
your heart and can cause a severe collapse in the labor room.
Having a heart disease in pregnancy is a high risk pregnancy. You
need to however get your heart checked up to find out the type of
heart disease you are suffering from before attempting to get
pregnant. Complete your family early, best depends on the condition
of your heart.
It needs to be borne in mind that with each pregnancy, your heart
gets worse, so having only a child or two would suffice in certain
cases. But with our current advent of such great technology and
ample follow ups with prenatal, antenatal and postnatal care, such
great demands and risk are often reduced though problems may still
arise.
Get your heart checked up FIRST! 