WEDNESDAY, June 24, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Want to give your baby the best start in life?

Then tend to your heart health, both prior to and during pregnancy, a new study says.

Expectant mothers in worse heart health are more likely to have children who suffer from developmental delays, researchers reported June 23 in JAMA Network Open.

“Better maternal cardiovascular health during pregnancy was associated with a lower risk of offspring developmental delay at age 4 years,” concluded the research team led by Mami Ishikuro, a senior assistant professor at Tohoku University in Japan.

“This association was observed across multiple developmental domains, suggesting that maternal cardiovascular health during pregnancy may be relevant to broad aspects of offspring development,” the research team said.

For the study, researchers analyzed data for more than 8,000 mothers who gave birth to children between July 2013 and March 2017 in Japan.

The team assessed the mothers’ heart health based on the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 checklist. That framework judges heart health based on diet, physical activity, nicotine exposure, sleep, cholesterol, blood glucose, blood pressure and body mass index (BMI). (BMI is an estimate of body fat based on height and weight.)

Overall, the study showed that about 17% of children born of women in poor heart health suffered from developmental delays, compared with 12% of women with moderate heart health and 9% of women with excellent heart health.

Women with poor heart health were 62% more likely to have a child suffer developmental delays, and those in moderate heart health were 30% more likely, the study said.

Poor heart health affected all five domains of child development, researchers found.

The personal-social domain fared the worst, with children more than twice as likely to suffer delays. This domain involves the way children interact with others and express their emotions.

Least affected was the communication domain, which measures children’s ability to use language and gestures to communicate with others. But even then, children born of women in poor heart health were 40% more likely to suffer delays.

“When somebody is not in their optimal cardiovascular health, they are at significantly higher risk of developing adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as preeclampsia, gestational hypertension, spontaneous preterm delivery, which does not give their child a true, appropriate time to develop,” said Dr. Evelina Grayver, director of Women’s Heart Health in Northwell Health’s Central Region and the Katz Institute for Women’s Health in Manhasset, New York, who reviewed the findings.

“Pregnancy is not like Vegas, where what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. What happens in pregnancy carries lifelong effect, not only for their mother, but clearly for their child, as well,” Grayver added in a news release.

Grayver recommends that women learn Life’s Essential 8 and use it to boost their heart health, particularly during pregnancy.

“Look at your diet. Try to stick to a clean Mediterranean diet as close as you possibly can: more fish, less red meats, more lean meats, vegetables, fruit, olive oil,” Grayver said. “Stay physically active, at least 30 minutes a day, five days out of the week. We don’t speak enough about sleep, but give your body the appropriate time to rest, at least seven to eight hours a day.

“Looking at that framework, that is how a young woman who is planning to potentially become a mom and planning a pregnancy should look at how to optimize her cardiovascular health,” she said. “I think that is very, very important to really recognize these essential eight guidelines for our everyday activity and how that could affect us in the future.”

More information

The National Institutes of Health has more on pregnancy and heart health.

SOURCES: JAMA Network Open, June 23, 2026; Dr. Evelina Grayver, director, Women’s Heart Health, Northwell Health’s Central Region and Katz Institute for Women’s Health, Manhasset, New York

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