Hi y’all! Thanks for visiting my Promise Walk Boston fundraising page. 

As most of you know, Alex and I welcomed a sweet baby boy in January, after being induced 3 weeks early due to a very sudden, extreme spike in my blood pressure. Luckily it had not progressed to preeclampsia. After delivery, my blood pressure was back to normal (128/72), and once we got the clear, I happily waved goodbye to Mass General to bring our baby boy home! But after just two days at home, I could tell something wasn’t right (let’s be honest that nothing feels right post-delivery, on no sleep). Luckily I have a blood pressure cuff at home, so I decided to take my BP and it was high (154/94), so the doctors told us to come back in. I was readmitted and immediately put on magnesium to prevent seizures. Urine tests revealed that I had postpartum preeclampsia, which I wasn’t even aware existed! It’s far less common and a bit of a mystery because the belief has been that delivery of the placenta is the end of preeclampsia, and so the development of it after delivery seems backwards. 

The next 6 days were a blur of exhaustion, confusion, fear, anxiety, and guilt. Here I was, a first time mom to an early baby. Navigating all of the new mom things like breastfeeding, operating on very minimal sleep, constantly changing both his and my diapers, overwhelmed by information about my health while preoccupied with ensuring my baby was healthy. There were many tears as my medications and doses were messed around with and as I “failed” BP readings every four hours for 6 days. Eventually, I was sent home with a strict schedule that included 16 pills and four BP readings a day, and the help of a visiting nurse. 

It’s been 5 months, and I am still on 400mg of Labetalol daily. Life, and my body, feel mostly back to normal, but there’s a chance I may have hypertension for the rest of my life. Should we decide to have a second baby, I’ll need to be monitored far more closely, and will likely have to take Aspirin throughout the pregnancy. 

Im running in the Promise Walk to raise awareness and money for the research of hypertension-related issues in pregnancy and postpartum. Mothers already have it tough enough, and many aren’t as lucky as I have been to receive top-notch care from one of the best hospitals in the country. We need to understand hypertension’s role in pregnancy better, and we need better maternal care across the board!