Rhode Islander, Katie Bergantine, JD, shares her personal journey managing maternal heart health
Photo Credit: Robby Trottier, Katie pictured with her fiancé, Corey McGuire, an East Providence Fire Fighter
Guest Blog Written by Katie Bergantine, JD, of Coventry, Rhode Islandwith afterword from the American Heart Association
In July of 2023, I found out I was having a baby girl. I was 25 at the time, and living a typically healthy lifestyle with no prior health conditions. I was looking forward to what I thought would be an uneventful and normal pregnancy. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
Typical nausea and pregnancy pains were replaced by a nightmare of a pregnancy when I was going into my second trimester. While attending a wedding in October with my fiancé, I felt lightheaded with a catch in my neck and a strange beat in my chest. I told my fiancé, who is a firefighter for the city of East Providence, and he immediately recognized that I was having symptoms of Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT) – an arrythmia that causes a rapid heartbeat. An ambulance took me to the nearest hospital. I will never forget the terror of being in the back of the ambulance and seeing, at the highest, a 220-bpm heart rate on the monitor while they tried to figure out a way to get it back down. Being taken to a busy ER and eight people immediately walking into your room is not a good feeling. After the hospital was able to correct it by performing a vagal maneuver and discharged me, I peeled off the monitoring pads hoping this was a one-time thing.
The following week I began to feel an onset of other symptoms which included random thuds in my chest, palpitations, shakiness and fatigue. I had never experienced these symptoms before my pregnancy. The SVT returned in episodes, often following a palpitation. The scariest moment was in December. While driving home from holiday shopping, I looked around a corner and my heart took off. It was beating so hard it felt as if it would pump out of my chest. Feeling extremely faint, I started to see a black tunnel and pulled over. Luckily, it corrected itself to a normal rate, but when I got home, I broke down and sobbed. This was no longer a one-time thing; something was clearly wrong. The trauma from this incident stayed with me long after my daughter was born. I wouldn’t drive a car again until eight months after my delivery.
After this incident, I had an echocardiogram (my heart is structurally normal) and was required to wear two separate heart monitors. The monitors were uncomfortable to wear and frustrating to do daily activities with. While wearing the monitors I didn’t have any SVT incidents. The only evidence I had of all of this was a single entry from the hospital back in October. It was devastating trying to tell doctors what was happening to me with essentially no proof. Aside from looking visibly tired, it was difficult for my friends and family to understand what I was feeling because to them I looked “normal” on the outside. The emotions were overwhelming. On top of this, I was constantly being sent to specialists and the high-risk scan department because I had tests coming back with abnormal results. I felt like I was living in a doctor’s office between routine OBGYN appointments, specialty visits and cardiology appointments.
The stress of becoming a first-time mother, in addition to the irregular heart rhythms, weighed on me heavily throughout my pregnancy. It was hard for me to find joy when every day was filled with worry that another SVT episode could be triggered. I was scared to breathe, or laugh, or do anything because I knew any wrong movement might trigger the arrhythmia. I was hopeful everything would “go away” when I had my daughter, which I was told was the most likely outcome.
On March 9th, at 10:10 A.M., I delivered a beautiful and healthy 6 lb. 7 oz. Girl with bright blue eyes like her father’s. The delivery itself went normally, but a few minutes later my eyes became numb, and my vision got extremely blurry. I went into SVT again and the delivery doctor initially dismissed me concluding it was anxiety, and I simply needed to calm down. After advocating for myself in sheer panic, a nurse tested me and told the doctor I had preeclampsia. I am very grateful to that nurse for listening to me. I remember feeling scared after being told that the disease puts me at a higher risk for high blood pressure later in life. Postpartum was also challenging. The beta blockers I was prescribed for preeclampsia made me feel so weak that picking up my newborn was a challenge.
My journey continues as I monitor my heart health with routine checkups at my cardiologist’s, healthy living and exercise. Almost a year later, we will be celebrating my incredible daughter Kennedy’s first birthday. I feel blessed and lucky each day I wake up to her smile and see her grow through each milestone.
Photo Credit: Sara Anne Photography
Women’s maternal health is important to me and should be important to everyone. My message is that cardiovascular disease doesn’t discriminate. Pregnancy conditions can be unpredictable, and it doesn’t matter how young you are, or what your history is.
Also, it’s never too late or early to get mental health help. I’ve been diagnosed with medical Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Postpartum Depression. Seeing a therapist helped me to untangle the crazy journey I’ve gone through, and I hope it can help other women struggling with the same thing.”
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of maternal death in the U.S., or more simply put, heart disease is the No. 1 killer of new moms. Different women experience different factors that increase their risk for pregnancy-related cardiovascular disease. It can pose a threat to women’s heart health during pregnancy and later in life, making it important that women understand how to care for themselves and their babies.
High blood pressure, preeclampsia, eclampsia, and gestational diabetes during pregnancy can increase cardiovascular risk for both mom and baby – short-term and long-term. High blood pressure is the most prevalent cardiovascular condition during pregnancy, and in the last two decades, there has been a 25% increase in preeclampsia, a condition characterized by high blood pressure and high levels of protein in the urine during pregnancy. Women who experience high blood pressure during pregnancy have a two- to four-fold higher risk of developing chronic hypertension between 2 to 7 years after delivery compared to women with normal blood pressure during pregnancy.
Up to 40% of women do not access postpartum care, and only an estimated 18% to 25% of postpartum patients with pregnancy complications or chronic health conditions are seen by a primary care clinician within 6 months of delivery.
How Go Red for Women is Making a Difference to Improve Maternal Health Outcomes: We’re spreading awareness and education through survivor stories and marketing campaigns, advocating for policy and systems change that support all women, funding critical research to address the unique risk factors and needs of women and collaborating with other experts in the space to address gaps in clinical care for pregnant women. Learn about the new postpartum systems of care recommendations from a group of thought leaders convened by American Heart Association by clicking here. For more information on how you can get involved with your local Go Red for Women Campaign, visit goredforwomen.org.
