Do some heart conditions cause more complications than others do?

Some heart conditions pose life-threatening risks for a pregnant person or the baby. Depending on the circumstances, certain conditions require major treatments before you try to get pregnant. For example, some people need heart surgery before they try to conceive.

Pregnancy isn't recommended for people who have conditions such as:

• Moderate to severe heart failure, also called class III or class IV heart failure.
• Ongoing heart muscle weakness that started late in a previous pregnancy or shortly afterward. This is called peripartum cardiomyopathy.
• Serious narrowing of the mitral or aortic heart valves.
• An aortic valve with two flaps instead of the usual three, along with an enlarged aorta.
• A birth defect that causes the body's largest blood vessel to narrow. This is called coarctation of the aorta.
• A rare heart defect present at birth that affects blood flow in the heart and lungs. This is called Eisenmenger's syndrome.
• Some cases of a genetic disorder that affects connective tissue in the body, called Marfan syndrome.
• High blood pressure that affects the arteries in the lungs and the right side of the heart. This is called pulmonary hypertension.

Sometimes, an abortion early in pregnancy is recommended for some people who have certain types of severe heart disease. This is because the risk of death or serious medical problems is very high for the pregnant person.