Does pregnancy affect asthma or does asthma affect pregnancy?
Dr. Fisher: Both can be true. The hormonal changes in pregnancy can worsen asthma in about one third of cases. Poorly controlled asthma can mean adverse outcomes for mother and baby. You can have preterm delivery of the fetus. You can have a small birth weight baby that can lead to other health issues. You can have pre-eclampsia, a high blood pressure disorder that occurs only during pregnancy and the postpartum period and affects both the mother and the unborn baby. All of these put the fetus and the mother at risk in addition to the asthma attack itself. Q: Can a doctor predict how asthma will affect a particular pregnancy? Dr. Fisher: Usually not. Sometimes past pregnancies are a clue but not always. If you had trouble with one of your other pregnancies it is especially important that you be monitored carefully but that is not always a good predictor. I consider it so important that I usually do a breathing test on my pregnant asthmatics at least once during the first trimester and
