Adverse Cardiovascular Events Following Severe Maternal Morbidity

Abstract Severe maternal morbidity (SMM) affects 50,000 women annually in the United States, but its consequences are not well understood. We aimed to estimate the association between SMM and risk of adverse cardiovascular events during the 2 years postpartum. We analyzed 137,140 deliveries covered by the Pennsylvania Medicaid program (2016–2018), weighted with inverse probability of censoring weights to account for nonrandom loss to follow-up. SMM was defined as any diagnosis on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list of SMM diagnoses and procedures and/or intensive care unit admission occurring at any point from conception through 42 days postdelivery. Outcomes included heart failure, ischemic heart disease, and stroke/transient ischemic attack up to 2 years postpartum. We used marginal standardization to estimate average treatment effects. We found that SMM was associated with increased risk of each adverse cardiovascular event across the follow-up period. Per 1,000 deliveries, relative to no SMM, SMM was associated with 12.1 (95% confidence interval (CI): 6.2, 18.0) excess cases of heart failure, 6.4 (95% CI: 1.7, 11.2) excess cases of ischemic heart disease, and 8.2 (95% CI: 3.2, 13.1) excess cases of stroke/transient ischemic attack at 26 months of follow-up. These results suggest that SMM identifies a group of women who are at high risk of adverse cardiovascular events after delivery. Women who survive SMM may benefit from more comprehensive postpartum care linked to well-woman care.