Study: Heart Attacks On The Rise Among Pregnant American Women

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A new study shows an rising risk between pregnancy and heart attacks among American women. Factors are going up in all women. If you add in the cardiac stress of pregnancy and delivery, and it amounts to a disturbing trend.

Even more worrisome is how much the risk has gone up, and at what ages.

Erika Perez welcomed her third child Joshua seven-years-ago. Right after the birth, she didn't feel well. Her EKG was normal, but ten days later she felt even worse.

"The pain went to my back and my chest and my arm," she told CBS2. "I felt like I was dizzy."

Doctors determined Erika was having a massive heart attack. She never thought that could happen at the age of 37, but a new study from NYU Langone Health says the risk of having a heart attack during pregnancy and right after delivery is on the rise. Researchers examined 55 million hospitalizations and found a 25 percent increase from 2002 to 2014. Five percent of those women died of their heart attack.

"The risk of heart attacks during pregnancy may be increasing because women are waiting longer to have children," Dr. Nathaniel Smilowitz said. "Diabetes and obesity have gone up during that same time period."

In fact, heart attack risk was highest for pregnant women over 40 but it increased in all age groups. Pregnancy is a stress on the heart at any age.

"As women are pregnant they need to increase the level of blood that is circulating in order to feed the growing baby, and that's a stress on the heart and then delivery involves a lot of shifts there's bleeding, there's shift of fluid and that can be a stress on the heart as well," Dr. Harmony Reynolds said.

Reynolds adds women and their partners need to be their own advocates when it comes to heart attacks and pregnancy. Women who are pregnant or have just delivered and have chest pains need to make sure they notify their doctors or nurses.

Erika is now 45, and encouraging other women to speak up they feel if something isn't right. Reynolds and Smilowitz also say women need to know and control their heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes.