Study examines impact of adequate prenatal care for congenital heart disease

For cases of mild congenital heart defects (CHDs), more prenatal visits are associated with lower probability of delivery at a cardiac center, according to a study published online Nov. 9 in JAMA Network Open to coincide with the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2025, held from Nov. 7 to 10 in New Orleans.

Christina Laternser, Ph.D., from the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and colleagues examined the associations between prenatal care adequacy and the likelihood of delivery at a pediatric cardiac center. Participants included neonates born with CHDs in Illinois from 2013 to 2021; of 12,113 neonates with CHD, 3,076 (25.4%) were born at a cardiac center and 1,579 (13.0%) had severe CHD.

Overall, 2.3% and 13.4% had no prenatal care and inadequate prenatal care, respectively; 10.8%, 34.8%, and 38.8% had intermediate, adequate, and adequate-plus prenatal care, respectively. The researchers observed an association for prenatal care initiation, with a 10.5 and 30.2 percentage point higher probability of delivery at a cardiac center for fetuses with mild CHD and severe CHD, respectively.

For mild CHD, compared with intermediate prenatal care, adequate-plus prenatal care was associated with a 6.7 percentage point lower probability of delivery at a cardiac center. For severe CHD, prenatal visit frequency was not associated with delivery at a cardiac center.

“Prenatal care ensures that babies with congenital heart defects are born at the right location with the appropriate intensity of care based on their clinical needs,” senior author Joyce Woo, M.D., also from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, said in a statement.

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