Maternal shift work during pregnancy and cardiovascular health impacts on mother and offspring

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death for women worldwide. One of the risk factors for CVD in women is complications during pregnancy. Pregnancy complications include a wide arena of pathologies, including hypertension, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, preterm delivery and miscarriage. Interestingly, increased evidence in recent years highlights a novel link between maternal shift work during pregnancy and increased risk for pregnancy complications, specifically hypertension and diabetes, while knowledge on other CVDs, such heart failure, atherosclerosis, ischemic heart disease, and stroke in pregnant shift working mothers is still scarce. Notably, shift work during pregnancy results in significant changes to the circadian rhythm of both the mother and fetus, therefore, engaging into shift work during pregnancy may adversely affect the cardiovascular health of both the mother and offspring, and carry into adulthood. Herein, we highlight the novel relationship between maternal shift work during pregnancy and the increased risk for pregnancy complications that may increase risk for CVD later in life. Furthermore, we provide mechanistic insights of the hemodynamic processes that are disrupted in response to maternal shift work and may explain the increased risk for cardiovascular disease.

Understanding how shift work during pregnancy influences the prevalence for heart disease is of paramount clinical importance for minimizing the risk for cardiovascular disease for both the mother and offspring.