Atrial Fibrillation in Pregnancy

Goodevening Everyone

I just thought I would add this to general discussion to see if anyone else had been in the same situation I was placed in on Friday morning.

I have had a tendency for a number of years to have heart palpitations. Usually lasting no more then 30 seconds to a minute. However for me on Thursday at 10pm I had one (due to laughing too much at hubby) and it did not go away. Infact it woke me at 3am, and I was up then until whenever.

I began to get my 5 & 8 yr olds off to school, and things became quite hard. My heart was still racing. I rang the midwives at the hospital and they said to come in and have a check. So called hubby from work, and we dropped the kids at school and went in.

Anyhow on arrival they checked me over in the "check you out first" room. After an ECG my heart was found to be at 175 bpm. So then I became a little bit more special and scored a midwife with me constantly, then I was made to feel real special and moved to the room outside the midwives station in birthing suites.

So then I had visits from cardiologists etc, and a nice intern who tried to massage my neck to kick my heart back to normal rythym. To no luck. I was still up in the 175bpm category. I started to freak a bit when they said the Senior Medical Registrar was looking at my file. I think they were deciding whether I be moved to the Mater or not.

Heart drugs and pregnancies don't really go well together, so it was a case of finding something that I could have. Anyhow with careful monitoring of both me n bubs they used Soltitol? which didnt take effect only to lower my BP to 96/36 whilst my heart rate was still 160??

Anyhow to cut a long story short, finally they sent me for an echocardiogram, then popped me into the cardiac care unit for the night. They used Adromine? to finally fix me, and I was back in normal rythym by 11pm Friday night. Thank god, as if it hadn't they had a huge contingency plan which included an anaesthesiast and shocking my heart.

Talk about a freak out. I saw all my vaginal labour plans going out the window, and bubs being born early, and yeh very full on. I now have to have a heart procedure when bubs is about 6 weeks old, which will "cure" me for life.

So I was wondering if anyone else had had this during pregnancy and if it effected your birth plan. I still want labours like my other two which were vaginal deliveries, and I hope everything beats right till then!

Thanks for listening. I know its not a birth story....but its was definitely an adventure!

Jac