04/30/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/30/2021 06:38
A few days after Lauren Sharkey's first daughter was born, she ended up in the emergency room with extremely high blood pressure. During her second pregnancy, Lauren was under the care of Katie Hawthorne, MD, a noninvasive cardiologist and an advanced cardiac imaging specialist with Lankenau Heart Institute.
One of Dr. Hawthorne's specialties is cardio-obstetrics, the treatment of patients with heart disease who are pregnant or have been pregnant. This kind of subspecialized care is important because women have unique heart health needs across their lifetimes.
'I see pregnant women with cardiovascular disease every day,' Dr. Hawthorne says. 'Pregnancy has many symptoms in common with congestive heart failure, so you have to see a lot of women who have normal pregnancies and congestive heart failure to understand the difference.' After Lauren's second daughter was born, her blood pressure rose again, but this time it was better controlled. 'We kept her out of the hospital and home with her babies, which meant the world to her,' Dr. Hawthorne says.
Pregnancy complications
There's a myth that complications from pregnancy-related high blood pressure and gestational diabetes go away after the baby is born, but that is not always the case. There are certain conditions during pregnancy that can put women at an increased risk for heart disease later in life:
If you have complications in pregnancy, you can reduce your risk for heart disease with these tips:
To schedule a cardio-obstetrics appointment at Main Line Health King of Prussia, call 484.324.7100