Question About Labor, Delivery to Other Mommies with SupraventricularTachycardia

Hello C.! Congrats on your upcoming birth! Labor can be strenouos, especially when you are not prepared. You may want to look into hypnobirthing. It allows you to self-hypnotize yourself and you end up having a completly calm birth. I know someone who teaches it and they have seen many a momma have an almost pain-free birth experience, completly natural. Check around in your area, but I know that www.allaboutbirthandbabies.com has a hypnobirthing instructor. She is great.

I'm not SVT but during induction i was tachycardic and they doctors all monitored me extra close i was over 120 and remained so even after i delivered for about a day but every thing was fine i had to be on a heart monitor during and after but I had a vaginal birth I would recomend lamaze it helped me stay in control and breath better which helped with the stress of giving birth but I'm sure you wont have any problems good luck and congrats

I developed SVT during pregnancy after cardiac surgery that was performed in my 32nd week of pregnancy. I did have to go on meds, metoprolol, to control it and was able to get off them about 6 months postpartum. I also was able to have a vaginal delivery. My OB was very supportive and knowledegable. I had an epidural that was placed before contractions became really painful and it kept the stress levels of delivery under control. Good luck!

hi C.,

i have it and gave natural birth with both children with no problems. that was in 1978 & 1980. i still have it but seems to be less with age.

I too have SVT. I have not had a baby yet, but I have been told multiple times that it should not be an issue. I have episodes frequently, actually this week has been bad. I have had 3 EP studies to try to correct the SVT but each time my heart won't go into the abnormal rhythm (sooo frustrating). my cardiologist said that when i do get pregnant that we will see how i do. if i am not having more episodes than usual then we will stay off meds. if i have more then we will try beta-blockers which are safe for the baby. i don't do well on beta-blockers (side effects) so i am hoping it won't come to that. talk to your OB and your card. and make sure they work in connection. work out a plan, so that when you go in labor everyone is on the same page. say like you do fine at first then as things progress the SVT starts to act up, then you try meds to control it, if it continues to be a problem then move to c-sec. good luck and let me know how it goes!!

Hi C.,
Congratulations on your pregnancy! I am a child birth educator with The Bradley Method. I am researching into your question because I have never encountered it. I am not qualified to give medical advise but I do know that good childbirth preperation could definetly ease the stress of labor which I would imagine effects your condition. My classes address all that couples can do to prepare ahead for labor and delivery physically, mentally, and emotionally. There may be circumstances that we have no control over but there is so much we do have control of. I know for me the more I educated and prepared myself for, the less stress I felt. It is such I magical time! I hope you can get some answers so that you can enjoy this once in all your lives time!
If you have any desire to talk more or I can help direct you to the right resource you can email me.
____@____.com
Good Luck,
R.

Here's some links on it:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&a...
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&a...

I'm sure you must have lots of info already. Hope this helps,
take care and congratulations on your baby!
~Susan
www.cafepress.com/littlegoogoo

C.,

I was about 22 when I had my first pregnancy, and I had a history of SVT. For me it was not an ongoing issue (as is true for you) however, my triggers were high stress levels... not that labor is stressful ;) I had not been on meds before prgenancy and choose not to use them durring. I had absolutely no real problems. On the few occations that I did have an "issue" I would sit quietly for a couple minutes, remind myself what my priorities were, and breathe! For me, just figuring out what triggered the attack was enough to settle it down and stop it. Honestly, I was so releaved to FIANLLY be in labor that i didnt' have a single episode during, or after delivery!

And the one trick that my cardiologist taught me as a child that is my all-else-fail-free-go-to: cold cans (of soda or anything) on the pulse points on the neck. It literally 'tricks' your brain into thinking it is being frozen and automatically slows your heartrate. Not my favorite feeling in the wolrd (I HATE COLD) but deffinately a good deal better then medicating!

Good luck and enjoy your pregnancy!

Hi C.

I know you wrote awhile ago but I have to respond b/c I feel like I have a lot of experience w/this issue. You will be just fine in labor. I have SVT and am currently pregnant with my 3rd baby. I have never taken any medications for it nor do I plan to... I had frequent episodes with my last two pregnancies and have had about 7 or 8 so far with this one and I am 6 months along. If you want to you can be monitored by a cardiologist during and after labor and also spend your postpartum in the cardiac unit...I was with my first because I was so scared of my SVTs that I was basically having a panic attack the whole time. I did have one episode of SVT in my first labor, which ended on its own after about 20 seconds ... with my second labor I was much more relaxed about it - didn't have any episodes at all and never even saw a cardiologist. You will probably experience a couple episodes right after your baby is born b/c your hormones and blood volume are rapidly dropping - this along with the fact that you are getting very little sleep is strenuous on your body. One thing that REALLY helps me to prevent them is staying well hydrated so you can try that too. I used to be so scared of the whole thing and now it is so common to me that I hardly even think twice about it. Just try not to psych yourself out about it too much and you will be fine.

On a side note I saw that another mother mentioned using the pulse points on the neck to stop an episode- while this will work my cardiologist says only to do this as a last resort b/c it can be dangerous (?) - instead, bearing down (like youre going to the bathroom) for a few seconds will almost always put your heart back into its normal rhythm - it does it by slowing blood flow while you are pushing and then a large amount of blood comes rushing back to the heart when you stop and "shocks" it back into normal pattern. I have been able to stop my SVT episodes using this method 100 % of the time. If you have ANY other questions please feel free to send me a message - I have researched my pesky SVT episodes to a ridiculous extent. Good luck to you and congrats!!!

C.,

From the responses it sounds like you may be able to have a vaginal birth without complications. Just focus on being calm for you and your baby and if infact you endup with a c-section that will be ok too. I have a uterine anomaly. The plan was for a vaginal birth but after 23 hours of labor I had my son by c-section. It wasn't my plan, but I went in knowing there could be a change of plan, so when it changed I was able to take it in stride.

God bless you and your little one.

M.

My SIL had this. She gave birth twice - no c-section. I think she had some flareups during the pregnancy and she was on some meds at the time. For safety measures, the heart doctor was present during the delivery. Otherwise, all went well.

Hi C.,
I had never been diagnosed with SVT but probably had some symptoms of it throughout my lifetime. But when I was about 6 months pregnant with my second child, it flaired up and I had to go to a cardiologist. After a bunch of tests, he diagnosed me and put me on digitalis (foxglove). I had to take it until a couple of months after the delivery. I was very reluctant to take any meds since I was pregnant, but the doctor insisted that it would be very stressful to me and the baby if I kept having episodes (especially since I was age 40). There did not appear to be any reported complications, but how many pregnant women had ever taken this med? Anyway, I went in for weekly monitoring, as for high-risk pregnancies. The birth was completely normal, no epidural because labor came on too fast. But I must say, my son did end up having autism and I really don't know if the med had any contribution to it. I have now found that I can make the SVT occur, just by the position I put my left shoulder in! If I feel an abnormality beginning, I quickly move my shoulder around, usually away from my body, and everything goes back to normal. Coughing usually helps realign my heartbeat also. I try not to sleep on my left side as this causes the problem.
Good luck to you! T.

C.,

You may want to get a referral to a perinatologist (a high risk pregnancy doctor) and talk to him/her about your concerns. Their training and experience is very, very different than a regular OB and they tend not to freak out (and thereby freak you out) nearly as easily. I don't have any heart problems but I've had 2 high risk pregnancies with lots of preterm labor and I've had one c-section and one VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section). Having been there and done that, I'll say the c-section was much more stressful, much harder on my body and the recovery was much worse. Labor with my second was painful for about 10 minutes after they broke my water, then I got an epidural and 4 hours later my son slid out. I didn't feel a thing and didn't break a sweat. LOL I'm sure other people have different experiences but I would SO not sign up for a c-section unless you have no choice. I had my second child at 4 a.m. and I was up walking around by 7and went home the next morning. With my first, I had my c-section at 6:30 a.m. and I could barely move for 2 weeks afterwards (was in the hospital for 5 days because I got an infection) and I was on some serious narcotics. Everyone thinks a c-section is a walk in the park but it isn't. It is major surgery with all of the risks of major surgery and I don't care what anyone says, it is stressful and painful and the recovery is awful. If I needed one, I'd get it but I certainly wouldn't volunteer unless there was a serious medical reason why I had no choice.

Good luck! I hope your pregnancy and delivery are completely smooth and uneventful!

T.

Hi C.,
Wow, I have never met anyone else with SAT ... I was diagnosed with it at at 21, and was put on more and more medications as it continued to get worse. Finally at age 25 I had cardiac ablation and was able to stop taking all medications. The SAT still "tries" to start up from time to time, but since the ablation, my own body cancels it out. It improved my quality of life 100%. However, during both of my pregnancies (age 34 and 39), around the 7th month, I had to go back to my cardiologist because the condition seemed to be returning. I learned that the 7 month mark is the classic time for the extra stress of pregnancy on a body to bring back the SAT. All I had to do was get on a small daily dose of digoxin for the last 2 months of my pregnancies. The dose was not harmful to my babies, and was certainly better than the stress of cardiac arrhythmia on the babies. And, just as my cardiologist said, the SAT disappeared as soon as my children were born. I would definitely recommend getting a cardiologist if you don't already have one, getting on medication temporarily, and looking into more permanent solutions after your pregnancy, if your condition is affecting the quality of your life. Hope this helps! L.

Aloha C.,

You might want to check with a cardiologist about that. My only experience with svt is that my son has it along with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Depending on the severity of your svt your obgyn/hospital might simply keep an injection handy in the event you get an episode.

Marie-anne :O)