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We wanted to develop this inter-professional clinic, recognizing that a
number of women are developing complications in pregnancy, such
as hypertension, diabetes, pre-pregnancy obesity,
or a lot of weight gain in pregnancy that exceed our new
guidelines. Those pregnancy complications are
not just a marker for illness in the pregnancy, but also have important
ramifications for women's future health, and indeed for their kids'
future health as well. Those complications are the pre-eclampsia,
hypertension, gestational
diabetes, babies that are growth restricted who are
born small by viture of having issues with the placenta.
Or placentas that separate early with bleeding, and that's called an
abruption. These pregnany complications impact in Ontario
about 1 in 5 women. And those women, when we see
them in the future, are now having increased risks
of earlier strokes,
more heart attacks, and even in the absence of having gestational diabetes,
those women with high blood pressure in pregnancy are also turning out to be at higher
risk for developing type 2 diabetes in their futures.
What many women may not be aware of is that cardiovascular disease is
the leading cause of death in Canadian women. And while
women are thinking more about some of the other health
conditions, like cancer, cardiovascular disease is of paramount importance
to them and their families. Things that we want to look at is
making sure that women are as active as they can be. We know unfortunately
that most Canadians are not meeting their physical activity guidelines
We're looking for 30 minutes a day, every day of the
week for 150 minutes total in the week. This is especially
important for new moms, who have all the cares of
looking after this new baby, trying to juggle all
the various things that come along with that. We'd also like to raise awareness
in the community so that programs can be developed for
women in the post partum period, and to
assist these women in making the lifestyle changes that we all know
can be really hard to make those changes on your own.