A mother’s health during pregnancy can shape whether her child is born with a malformed heart. Congenital heart disease is a leading cause of infant death and long-term illness worldwide, but doctors lack clear evidence on which maternal conditions or exposures actually trigger these defects. This study will mine detailed health records and early-pregnancy blood samples from a large national registry to test links between a wide range of maternal chronic illnesses, infections, and drug use during pregnancy and the risk of heart defects in the child. Most of these potential risk factors have never been investigated at this scale. If the research succeeds, it could provide the first solid evidence base for prevention measures—such as managing specific autoimmune conditions or avoiding certain medications during pregnancy—that might reduce the number of children born with lifelong heart problems. This is fundamentally an epidemiological study: it will not test a treatment or intervention, but it will generate the knowledge needed to design future prevention strategies.
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Background: Congenital heart disease is one the most important causes of infant mortality and morbidity worldwide. Maternal health factors are thought to play a role in the development of these disorders, yet, to this day, evidence remains insufficient to derive specific prevention measures. Aim: To investigate risk factors affecting mothers during pregnancy and how these contribute to the development of congenital heart defects in the offspring. Methods: We will combine several prospectively collected data sources from the Finnish National Registries which provide detailed health information from almost 2 million pregnancies - including electronic health records of mothers and their offspring, national congenital anomaly registries, and maternal blood samples taken early in pregnancy that will be re-analysed for this study. We will investigate maternal chronic conditions (including a range of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions) therapeutic drug exposure, and maternal infections (across a broad range of viral, bacterial and parasitic pathogens) during pregnancy, most of which have not been investigated at such a large scale. Expected Outcomes: Improved understanding of the role of maternal health in the development of offspring congenital heart diseases could inform the future development of prevention measures and limit the number of children affected by these lifelong conditions.
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