Attitudes & practices surrounding pregnancy post heart transplant among pediatric providers

Abstract

Background: Many pediatric heart transplant (HT) recipients reach adulthood and may be interested in family planning; there is little data regarding safety of pregnancy post HT and clinicians' opinions differ. Pediatric HT clinicians are instrumental in early counseling. Thus, a better understanding of pediatric HT clinicians' practices regarding family planning and how well aligned these practices are with adult transplant centers is essential.

Methods: We conducted a confidential, web-based survey of pediatric HT clinicians in fall 2021. We summarized and compared answers using Fisher's exact test.

Results: The survey was sent to 53 United States-based HT directors and to the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation and Pediatric Heart Transplant Society list serves. There were 69 respondents. The majority (77%) of respondents felt pregnancy was feasible in selected or all female HT recipients. Ten respondents reported that their institution had an established policy regarding pregnancy post HT. A majority (77%) of HT clinicians would either use a shared care model or recommend transition to their adult institution if pregnancy occurred, though 74% of respondents were either unaware of their corresponding adult institution's policy (62%) or had a counterpart adult program with a policy against pregnancy post HT (12%).

Conclusions: While many clinicians feel pregnancy is feasible in pediatric HT recipients, there remains significant practice variation. Few pediatric programs have a policy regarding pregnancy post HT. Future efforts to provide consistent messaging between adult and pediatric HT programs regarding the feasibility and care of post HT pregnancy are warranted.

Keywords: heart transplant; organ transplant; pediatrics; pregnancy; pregnancy post transplant.