A mother of two from New Jersey was 31 weeks pregnant when she woke with a headache – but what was initially thought to be a common symptom would ultimately lead to her giving birth nine weeks early.
Jennifer Tavares was still working her regular hours as a nurse practitioner at a New Jersey Hospital and headaches as a working mom weren’t ‘abnormal.’
But when she discovered swelling in her body, she ordered herself a blood pressure cuff for same-day delivery.
‘I started to put the pieces together that this wasn’t something that was normal for me, and it wasn’t something that was necessarily normal for pregnancy,’ Tavares told CBS News.
As her headache worsened, she suspected she had preeclampsia, a persistent high blood pressure condition that develops during pregnancy or the postpartum period.
Most women go on to deliver healthy babies and fully recover, but in cases like Tavares’ the condition can worsen and become life-threatening to both the mother and baby, according to Preeclampsia Foundation.
When the cuff arrived, Tavares checked her blood pressure and found the numbers were high and only increasing.
Jennifer Tavares was 31 weeks pregnant when she woke with a headache, but what was a common symptom would lead to a preeclampsia diagnosis and giving birth nine weeks early
As her headache worsened she suspected she had preeclampsia, a persistent high blood pressure condition that develops during pregnancy or the postpartum period
‘You go through this period of, “Is this really happening? Is this not happening?” and it was happening,’ Tavares said.
She and her husband went to Morristown Medical Center, the very hospital she worked at, and it was there she was diagnosed with preeclampsia.
For three days her medical team worked to stabilize her condition. But eventually, the decision to deliver her son nine weeks early was made due to the risk preeclampsia posed.
The raised blood pressure cause by her condition can result in serious damage to organs as well as seizures or even death.
Tavares had been diagnosed with severe features, which means her extremely elevated blood pressured poses an increased risk for major complications.
‘In some women after delivery, blood pressure can improve and normalize,’ Dr Amy Ahnert, Tavares’ cardiologist and the director of the Women’s Heart Program at Morristown Medical center, told the outlet.
‘Unfortunately, with Jen it, was the opposite.’
Tavares’ symptoms kept worsening, and she was moved to the cardiac floor from the obstetric floor.
Dr. Amy Ahnert, Tavares’ cardiologist and the director of the Women’s Heart Program at Morristown Medical center, said that preeclampsia cases have doubled since 2014
‘I was very fortunate that I had a little bit of knowledge to be able to help myself,’ Tavares said. ‘There’s so much education that we need to do for the maternal population, for the provider population, just for everyone’
Preeclampsia symptoms can resolve during the postpartum period, according to Ahnert, but some patients such as Tavares may experience symptoms for months.
‘I was hopeful that my situation would chance after delivery, and it was hard when it didn’t,’ Tavares said. ‘Nothing was normal anymore.’
Her diagnosis would mean Tavares would need blood pressure medication and regular follow-ups.
‘There were times when we would taper down, and then we would have to go back up because my blood pressure would go back up. Blood pressure up and down, meds up and down, emotions up and down,’ Tavares said, describing the experience as a ‘roller coaster.’
Preeclampsia diagnoses, according to Ahnert, have doubled since 2014. However, it remains a mystery why rates of the condition are increasing, said Dr Anais Hausvater, the co-director of NYU Langone’s Cardio-Obstetrics program.
Hausvater said more pregnancies occurring later in life and more pre-existing cardiac conditions could contribute to the increase.
Doctors have also become more pro-active in monitoring for preeclampsia, which she said leads to more diagnoses but overall, there ‘is still something unexplained about why we’re seeing so much of it.’
Yet, the condition is not confined to the time during or immediately after birth. Patients who have been diagnosed with any kind of preeclampsia have a risk of developing chronic hypotension up to 25 times higher, Hausvater said.
Seven months after her son was born, Tavares is still dealing with the effects of her diagnosis. She is still on medication and has regular follow-up appointments but has made peace with her diagnosis
She said that those diagnosed with preeclampsia also have a higher risk of developing premature atherosclerosis, a chronic disease which causes the arteries to harden, as well as experiencing heart attacks, strokes and heart failure even decades after giving birth.
‘It’s a lifelong risk factor,’ Hausvater added.
Seven months after her son was born, Tavares is still dealing with the effects of her diagnosis. She told CBS that while her blood pressure is typically normal, she’s had moments where it spikes.
She is still on medication and has regular follow-up appointments but has made peace with her diagnosis. Now, she wants to spread the word for other expecting mothers.
‘I was very fortunate that I had a little bit of knowledge to be able to help myself,’ she said.
‘There’s so much education that we need to do for the maternal population, for the provider population, just for everyone. I want other people to benefit from the trauma I had, so hopefully they’re able to survive what they need to get through.’
