Pennsylvania hospital uses remote monitoring to protect new mothers from high blood pressure
Doctors at Main Line Health can now monitor new mothers' blood pressure remotely to keep them safe and healthy. High blood pressure is a leading cause of maternal mortality. Now, Lankenau Medical Center has a user-friendly way to help moms at risk.
Newborn baby Adonis is thriving, but his mother, Jennifer Noble, is being carefully monitored for preeclampsia, chronic high blood pressure that can be very dangerous.
"It was scary cause I'm concerned what else could happen. Could I have a stroke? What is the worst-case scenario?" Noble said.
She's taking medications to reduce the risk, but that requires careful monitoring.
"This is what I use to check my blood pressure and it's really really easy," Noble said.
Instead of repeatedly visiting a doctor's office, Noble now takes her blood pressure at home, and her doctors at Main Line Health monitor the reading.
"It's convenient, it's easy, no stress, and I just love that I don't have to leave my home," Noble said.
Lankenau cardiologist Katie Hawthorne and nurse practitioner Adena Brewington-Brown say remote blood pressure monitoring is a big advance.
"We're able to see it on a daily basis, and if it's elevated or we're concerned, we're able to act in a timely manner," Brewington-Brown said.
They say maternal mortality is often a result of women not being able to get to a doctor's office for monitoring routinely. Remote check-ins eliminate the problem.
"We're able to keep our patients at home and safe with their baby instead of trying to come back in and out of a health facility," Hawthorne said.
For Noble, it's convenient and comforting.
"It's taken away a lot of stress. I'm not scared, I'm not nervous anymore. It's given me a sense of ease knowing I'm OK," she said.
Doctors say blood pressure monitoring is critically important because there are often no symptoms.