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During pregnancy the increasing needs of the growing fetus and of her own tissues throw an added burden on the mother’s heart. The work that the heart does is measured by the amount of blood it expels per minute (the cardiac output). Rapid increase in the cardiac output occurs between the 9th and the 14th week of gestation. During the period from the 28th to the 30th week, when the load is heaviest, the heart of a pregnant woman is doing 25 to 30 percent more work than it was doing before pregnancy. As the time of delivery approaches, the ...(100 of 19882 words)