Placental abruption linked to higher cardiovascular risk in babies

The risk of developing early heart disease or dying from heart disease by age 28 was about 4.6 times higher in people born to mothers who had an umbilical cord obstruction during pregnancy. The findings were compared with people whose births did not have this complication, according to new research published today in Journal of the American Heart AssociationAn open-access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

Placental abruption occurs when the placenta separates from the uterus before birth rather than after delivery, and can cause severe bleeding or other serious complications for the mother and baby. According to the American Heart Association’s 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics, most studies have reported an incidence of 0.5% to 1% for placental abruption in the general population.

Our study shows that umbilical cord obstruction should be treated as a very serious complication for the mother and can also potentially affect the heart health of the baby later in life. Most treatments after placental abruption focus on monitoring the mother after a pregnancy complication. Our study shows that it is important that their children are also monitored to identify possible complications due to the increased risk of heart disease. Cardio-obstetrics working with pediatric programs in medical schools and hospitals will be important to monitor and support the health of these mothers after delivery and their babies as they grow.”

Cande Ananth, Ph.D., MPH, The lead author of the study, Chief of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey

This study examined whether disruption in the mother’s umbilical cord might be associated with an increased risk of heart and stroke conditions in the child, and death from heart disease and stroke over nearly three decades.

The study reported that:

• Of approximately 3 million pregnancies, approximately 1% (n = 28,641) were affected by placental abruption.
• During a 28-year follow-up period, babies born to mothers who experienced umbilical cord obstruction during pregnancy were 4.6 times more likely to die from heart disease than babies born to mothers who experienced normal separation of the placenta from the uterus after delivery.
• Babies born to mothers who had umbilical cord obstruction faced almost three times the risk of being hospitalized for heart complications over the next 28 years. These conditions include heart failure, ischemic heart disease, heart attack, blocked arteries, and common heart disease.
• The risk of hospitalization due to stroke was 2.4 times higher in those children than in children whose mothers had no placental abruption.
• These risks associated with sudden heart disease and stroke were even higher in children under 1 year of age.

The association between placental abruption and increased cardiovascular risk remained the same after conducting an additional analysis contrasting cardiovascular disease risks between biological siblings (each mother served as her own control), suggesting that genetic and environmental factors do not explain this association.

“Placental abortion is a sudden and often devastating event that cannot be prevented and comes without warning. Older women or those who are expecting more than one child, such as twins or triplets, have an increased risk of developing this condition. Health care professionals should support patients in maintaining a healthy lifestyle to protect their own and their baby’s health. Avoid smoking, drinking alcohol, and using illicit drugs (in particular, cocaine) and good Maintaining blood pressure control is also important, as they are linked to placental abruption,” Ananth said.

“We know that women who have complications during pregnancy often have a higher risk of heart disease and stroke, and that’s why the American Heart Association recommends monitoring these women closely, especially for the first three months to a year after birth,” said Stacy E. Rosen, MD, FAHA, volunteer president of the American Heart Association. “The findings of this study reinforce that it is important to monitor the risks to their infants and identify opportunities to reduce the potential impact these complications may have on them, not only immediately after birth, but throughout their lifetime.” Rosen, who was not involved in the study, is also the executive director of the Katz Institute for Women’s Health and senior vice president of women’s health at Northwell Health in New York City.

According to the study authors, more research is needed to understand how placental abruption affects heart health in children born from those pregnancies. This study is one of the first to find a link between cardiovascular risk in babies born to mothers with placental abruption. However, the findings are limited because the study is an analysis of hospital and death records; Therefore, researchers cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

Study description, background and design:

• This analysis is a study that looks at past data. Researchers reviewed hospitalization and mortality records as well as data from the Placental Abruption and Cardiovascular Event Risk (PACER) Project to analyze nearly 3 million births in New Jersey from 1993 to 2020, focusing on mothers who had placental abruption during pregnancy and babies born from those pregnancies. This study focused solely on single-infant births.
• Of the 2,949,992 pregnancies analyzed, 1% (28,641 pregnancies) experienced placental abruption.
• The researchers followed the offspring for 28 years after their birth, reviewing hospital records and mortality records from the offspring’s birth until their non-fatal cardiovascular hospitalization; From birth to death due to any cause; and nonfatal cardiovascular hospitalization for death from any cause.