New initiative launches in Texas to help save the lives of moms
NORTH TEXAS — A North Texas mother partnered with the Texas Health Resources Foundation to provide a potentially life-saving tool to at-risk pregnant and postpartum moms.
The maternal death rate in Texas has increased at least 40 percent over the last two decades, according to researchers with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
A CDC study found more than 80 percent of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.
"I just want to make sure every mom gets to see her baby grow up," said Jaheera White, a mom of two who lives in Flower Mound.
White almost didn't get that chance.
"It makes me shudder to think about really what could have happened," she said.
She had a healthy pregnancy and normal delivery with her daughter Posha, her second child.
"And then, about two weeks later, I started experiencing a really bad headache," White said. "I was thinking maybe I was sleep deprived, maybe I didn't drink enough water, maybe I didn't eat enough."
After three days of symptoms, something compelled her to check her blood pressure with a monitor she kept at home. The reading was so high, that she headed straight to the ER.
White spent the next three days in the hospital, where doctors worked to get her blood pressure under control.
"If I didn't have that blood pressure monitor, I probably would have tried to sleep it off, and I might not have woken up," she said.
White had no idea she could still be at risk for preeclampsia, a type of high blood pressure some people get during pregnancy, even after her baby was born.
"I was in awe and shock that this happened to me, and I started to do more research and I was like oh my gosh, this happens to a lot of moms," she said.
More than half of pregnancy-related deaths, 53%, in the U.S. happen up to one year after delivery, according to the CDC. Seven percent of those are related to high blood pressure.
In Texas specifically, severe maternal morbidity rates related to preeclampsia increased 37 percent between 2017 and 2020.
"The surprising thing about that is it can happen to patients who didn't have any risk factors," said Dr. Marc Wilson, an OBGYN physician at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Denton. "You're a new mom, you're already tired from waking up for feedings and so forth, and so many times those moms can attribute it to just be tired and fatigued. When in actuality it can be a sign of postpartum preeclampsia."
If they don't recognize the symptoms early, Dr. Wilson says it can be fatal.
"These patients can develop not only stroke, but even blindness and have severe mental impairments later on," he said.
To help prevent deaths and severe health outcomes, White launched an initiative with the Texas Health Resources Foundation to give blood pressure monitors to at-risk pregnant and postpartum moms, so they can check their blood pressure at home.
So far, 165 women have received the blood pressure monitors from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Denton.
"I want it to be the same thing as having a thermometer in your home," White said. "That's my hope."
So no mother has to miss celebrating all of her baby's milestones, big and small.
