Interrelationships between asthma and pregnancy: clinical and mechanistic considerations

Asthma appears to be one of the most common potentially serious medical problems to complicate pregnancy. There is abundant literature suggesting that asthma and pregnancy may have reciprocal influences on each other. This article will review the literature dealing with the effect of asthma on pregnancy and the effect of pregnancy on asthma. For each of the bidirectional relationships, a review of clinical observations will be followed by a review of potentially relevant mechanistic considerations.