Incidence and characteristics of maternal cardiac arrhythmias during labor.

There is an assumption that pregnancy and labor are prone to a higher incidence of maternal cardiac arrhythmias. We assessed the incidence and characteristics of maternal cardiac arrhythmias during labor and compared the findings with corresponding studies of healthy nonpregnant women and pregnant women not in labor. A high incidence of cardiac arrhythmias during labor (93%) was found among 30 healthy pregnant women; however, other than atrial premature beats, the rate was no higher than among nonpregnant women.