Can You Use An AED On A Pregnant Woman?
Short answer: Yes. An AED is used on a pregnant woman in cardiac arrest exactly as it is used on any other adult. Standard adult pads, standard placement, standard energy. There is no modified pediatric setting, no reduced shock, and no stage of pregnancy at which defibrillation is withheld. The American Red Cross states that AEDs are safe to use on pregnant people.
This question comes up in almost every workplace training session, and the hesitation behind it is always the same: the responder is worried about the baby.
The answer resolves that worry rather than balancing it. In cardiac arrest, the most effective thing anyone can do for a fetus is restore circulation in the mother. There is no competing interest to weigh. Defibrillation is the treatment for both patients.
Why There Is No Modified Procedure
Defibrillation current travels between two pads placed on the chest. The path runs through the heart and the upper thorax. It does not travel meaningfully to the uterus, and the amount of energy reaching a fetus is not what determines outcome. What determines outcome is whether the mother's heart is restarted, and how fast.
A pregnant woman in cardiac arrest has minutes. Every one spent debating pad placement, looking for different equipment, or waiting for someone more qualified is a minute of no circulation for two patients at once.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Use pediatric pads or a pediatric key? | No. Adult pads at adult energy |
| Change pad placement? | No. Standard positions apply |
| Does the trimester matter? | No. The procedure is the same throughout |
| Wait for EMS instead? | No. Waiting costs both patients |
| Does anything change at all? | Only the CPR position, described below |
The One Thing That Does Change: Position During CPR
The modification in pregnancy is not to the AED. It is to how the patient is positioned for chest compressions in later pregnancy.
From roughly the second half of pregnancy, the weight of the uterus can press on the large vein returning blood to the heart when the patient lies flat on her back. That reduces the blood available for compressions to circulate. Standard resuscitation training addresses this by displacing the uterus manually to the patient's left while compressions continue, which is a job for a second responder using both hands.
The AED sequence is unaffected by this. Pads go on, analysis runs, shock is delivered if advised, compressions resume. The displacement simply continues around it.
What Advanced Responders Will Do Next
It helps lay responders to know what happens after they hand over, because it explains the urgency of the handoff.
The 2025 American Heart Association guidelines set a target of five minutes for resuscitative delivery in maternal cardiac arrest, tightening earlier guidance. That is a clock starting at the moment of arrest, not at the moment EMS arrives. It is also the clearest possible statement of why the first responder on scene matters. What a bystander does in the first two minutes determines what the hospital team is working with.
The same 2025 update also found extracorporeal CPR reasonable in pregnant and peripartum cardiac arrest, and added a balanced massive transfusion protocol for amniotic fluid embolism. None of this changes what a workplace responder does. All of it depends on that responder having already started.
Removing The Clothing Barrier
There is a second hesitation that specifically affects women in cardiac arrest, pregnant or not, and it is worth naming because it costs lives measurably.
Responders delay or avoid placing pads because doing so means exposing a woman's chest in a public place. The 2025 guidelines addressed this directly with a recommendation that it may be reasonable to adjust the position of a bra instead of removing it, and the guidelines explicitly acknowledge gender disparities in public defibrillation access as the reason.
Underwire is not a contraindication. Move it or push it up. Place the pads on bare skin, run the analysis, and cover the patient with a jacket between shocks if bystanders are present.
What This Means For Your AED Program
Nothing on your equipment list changes. Two things on your training list should.
Name this scenario explicitly in your annual refresher. Responders who have heard the words yes, including pregnancy in a classroom do not freeze in a hallway. Responders who have never considered it do.
Second, if your facility has a meaningful population of women of childbearing age, which describes most workplaces, schools, gyms, and places of worship, add the uterine displacement point and the clothing point to the same two minutes of training. They cost nothing and they address the two specific delays that affect female patients.
If you are still building the program itself rather than refining it, start with how to set up an AED program.
Related Reading
Part of our series on AED exceptions. The overview is who can an AED be used on. See also AED use with a pacemaker or ICD, using an AED on infants and children, and Good Samaritan laws and AED liability.
Sources
Maternal arrest guidance and the bra recommendation are drawn from the 2025 American Heart Association Guidelines for CPR and ECC, published October 2025. Red Cross guidance that AEDs are safe to use on pregnant people appears in their AED resource.
This article describes published resuscitation guidance and is not a substitute for hands-on training, for medical advice, or for the manufacturer's instructions for use supplied with your AED.
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