Pregnancy

Many women in the SCAD community are given blanket advice that pregnancy after SCAD is too dangerous to consider. However, you do have a choice to investigate the options.

All SCAD patients considering pregnancy should seek pre-conception counselling so they can be fully assessed, their individualised risk discussed and medications reviewed to ensure they are safe in pregnancy.

Dr David Adlam, who is leading the UK SCAD research, discusses pregnancy after SCAD in this video (starting at 31 minutes) 

Dr Abtehale Al-Hussaini, a Consultant at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, runs a SCAD clinic and works with the High-risk Pregnancy Clinic at the hospital, which includes another cardiologist and obstetricians.

They have set up:

A pre-conception clinic where patients considering a future pregnancy can have their questions answered and get advice. The clinic can also advise on contraception and other issues related to SCAD.

A high-risk pregnancy clinic. This will be mainly for women who are already pregnant and will need a plan of care to be drawn up for them.

There is the capacity to have a one-off referral, or plan to deliver the baby at Chelsea. There will be access to the specialist midwife who will closely liaise with relevant teams as needed.

Please email Dr Al-Hussaini on Abtehale.Al-hussaini@chelwest.nhs.uk for advice on how to be referred or if you would like to explore using this service.

Dr David Adlam at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester is also happy to advise on pregnancy after SCAD. 

You can read more about pregnancy-related SCAD in our patient stories.

Further video resources about pregnancy-related SCAD can be found here.