Peripartum cardiomyopathy.

ABSTRACT

Peripartum cardiomyopathy remains a rare but troubling complication of pregnancy. The cardiovascular stress of labour and delivery may lead to cardiac decompensation. These patients require special anaesthetic care during labour and delivery. Compensated patients may undergo vaginal delivery with appropriate monitoring. For those patients late in pregnancy with more significant haemodynamic compromise, consideration should be given to elective caesarean section with invasive haemodynamic monitoring of the mother. We report two antenatal cases of peripartum cardiomyopathy where a near miss situation was avoided by doing an emergency caesarean section.