New research published in the European Heart Journal and a European Society of Cardiology release shows that cardiovascular disease (CVD) hospitalization risk is higher in mothers of twins.
According to the release, “The risk of being admitted to the hospital with heart disease is twice as high the year after birth for mothers of twins compared to single births.” The risk is particularly high in twin mothers who experienced high blood pressure during their pregnancies.
36 million United States hospital deliveries from 2010-2020 were analyzed for this study. Mothers were placed in four groups: those who gave birth to twins and had high blood pressure during pregnancy, those who had twins but didn’t experience blood pressure issues, those who gave birth to one child and experienced high blood pressure related conditions during pregnancy, and those who gave birth to one child but had no blood pressure issues during pregnancy.
Mothers who were “readmitted to the hospital within a year of childbirth with any type of cardiovascular disease” were noted in each group.
The study found that CVD-related hospital readmissions were significantly higher for the patient groups with twins than single pregnancies within a year of giving birth (About 1.11% of 100,000 deliveries vs. 0.73% of 100,000 deliveries).
Despite this, “one year after birth, deaths from any cause, including heart disease, were higher among patients with single pregnancies who had high blood pressure conditions compared to patients with twins with high blood pressure conditions.”
