Pregnancy and childbirth present a specific challenge to the maternal cardiovascular system. Pre-existing cardiac diseases, or cardiac diseases that occur during pregnancy, are associated with a significant risk of morbidity and mortality for both mother and baby. In recent decades, cardiac disease has emerged as a leading cause of maternal death in most high income countries, including Australia and New Zealand.

The burden of cardiac disease in pregnancy is likely to be growing due to an increase in adult survivors with congenital heart disease embarking on pregnancy coupled with demographic shifts in the age and cardiovascular risk factors of women giving birth and the persisting high incidence of acute rheumatic fever in First Nations women. There is widespread consensus that the best obstetric and neonatal outcomes in women with cardiac disease are delivered by a strategy of carefully coordinated multidisciplinary care. Australia and New Zealand currently lack nationally agreed strategies for clinical practice and service delivery for women with heart disease in pregnancy.

This state-of-the-art review summarises some of the key issues faced in relation to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and health service delivery in this patient group and concludes with suggested priorities for policy and research.