Key result
Healthy pregnancy increases cardiac output ~31% above non-pregnant levels, peaking in the early third trimester.
Why the study?
How does cardiac output change across the stages of a healthy singleton pregnancy compared to the non-pregnant state?
Population
Healthy women with singleton pregnancies (39 studies, pooled sample sizes ranging from 259 to 748)
Design
Meta-analysis
Follow-up
Through late postpartum
Authors
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Supplies a quantitative reference for managing cardiovascular conditions in pregnancy; confirms the timing and extent of physiologic adaptation.
How does cardiac output change across the stages of a healthy singleton pregnancy compared to the non-pregnant state?
During healthy pregnancy, cardiac output follows a non-linear pattern of adaptation, peaking in the early third trimester at approximately 31% above non-pregnant baseline before returning to normal in the early postpartum period.
Meah et al. (2016) studied this question. Cardiac output increased by 1.5 L/min (31%) above non-pregnant values, peaking in the early third trimester during healthy pregnancy.
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