Patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) may successfully undergo pregnancy
and normal delivery with no increase in the risk of ICD discharge or complications [36]. ICD discharge
has not been found to be associated with foetal harm. The labour and delivery should be planned and to
take place in a centre with ready availability of the resources and staff who are familiar with the
management of ICDs. During labour and a vaginal delivery, the tachycardia and contractions may
Y. Emmanuel, S.A. Thorne / Best Practice & Research Clinical Obstetrics and Gynaecology 29 (2015) 579e597 591
precipitate an inappropriate discharge. It may be helpful to disable the ICD therapy during this time
and instead have continuous ECG monitoring with immediate manual defibrillation available. Patients
requiring caesarean section should have the ICD therapy switched off during surgery, as with any other
surgical procedure, to prevent inappropriate discharge as a result of electrical interference from the use
of diathermy