Flow murmur in pregnancy - any impact?

[chocolatesolveseverything]

Long story - but following a scare yesterday when I was suspected of having a pulmonary embolism (I didn't - was just a pulled muscle!) the hospital picked up a slight heart murmur which they think is a straightforward flow murmur. I'm due to have a echo scan to confirm this, but the doctors reassured me that they don't think it's serious.

So at the time I never asked any questions about it, but now back home I'm wondering if this will have any likely impact on my care and treatment/delivery options throughout the rest of pregnancy. I'm 24 weeks at present. It's not that I'm worried health-wise particularly - it sounds commonplace enough (and a lot better than an embolism! ) but it would be a tad annoying if this meant that my options at childbirth were limited for example. Anyone got any experience to share?

Thanks,

Hello, thought I ought to reply as I had a flow murmur in my previous pregnancy. I saw a cardiologist and had a number of ECG's at 28 weeks plus. I remained under shared care between the midwives and consultant obstetrician until the end of my pregnancy.

I had a normal delivery at 38 weeks. The only thing I would say is that it made me super-exhausted, having palpitations etc towards the end.

I'm now pregnant again and feeling it coming back. I think it is seen as not much of a problem but it is a pain. I've got a further Echo booked at 28 weeks (I now live in a different area) and I'm under consultant led care.

Hope that helps,

Inca

It does - thanks Inca

If its just a flow murmur then it's nothing to worry about at all, is within normal limits, will not give you palpitations or any other sort of problem and will not affect your pregnancy or delivery. A flow murmur occurs when the increase in blood flow rate, due in your case to pregnancy, causes a noise to be heard as the blood goes through the valves in the heart. Flow murmurs can also be heard in healthy non-pregnant young adults and children, and in those whose cardiac system is having to work hard for other reasons such as sepsis.

If you get palpitations/fatigue/breathlessness, there is something else going on. It is not caused by a flow murmur.

I had an echo in my last pregnancy due to previous conduction defect (which gave me palpitations) and had a trivial leak on a valve. This is also normal in pregnancy. At least you will get to know soon if its just a flow murmur (really not an issue at all) or if there is something there making a noise (also may not be a problem).

I had a normal delivery, no additional monitoring, all fine. I'm a doctor.

Interesting - so maybe it won't even require consultant-led care. Thanks HPsauce

I've been hoping to stay on midwife-led care during the pregnancy as that would mean I can choose later on whether to give birth in hospital or the midwife unit next door.

It's been a while but I thought I should post an update in case it helped anyone who happened to search the MN archive for pregnancy flow murmur issues in the future.

I had my heart scan and got the results back last week which were entirely normal as expected. This means that I'm not being referred for consultant-led care and am continuing to just see my midwife as normal.