Yasmiin Jones* was entering into her 39th week of pregnancy when she started feeling that something might be off. She had been using a monitor to track her blood pressure through her pregnancy, and on week 38, day 5, she clocked a reading higher than normal.
“I thought, you know what, maybe the reading is wrong — maybe I was in the wrong position,” said Yasmiin. So she took her reading again. It was still high.
After the second attempt, Yasmiin entered the reading into her Babyscripts app and waited. The app immediately prompted her to fill out a symptom survey, and she reported increased swelling. Three minutes later, she received a call from the Babyscripts team asking her to retake her blood pressure after 10 minutes.
When her blood pressure had not dropped, the Babyscripts team contacted her provider, and she was brought to the hospital for immediate assessment.
“When I went into the hospital, they told me that because I was in the later stages of the pregnancy and only had a week left before my due date, it was probably best that I get induced that week. I was showing signs of gestational hypertension.”
After a stressful couple of days, Yasmiin and her husband made the decision to be induced, and she delivered a healthy baby without complications.
After discharge, her blood pressure spiked again, and was readmitted to the hospital with preeclampsia, which her providers were able to treat.
“If I had waited until my due date, I would have already entered the preeclampsia stage,” said Yasmiin. “If I had not had the blood pressure cuff, I probably would have thought I was totally fine, and it would have been a huge danger to me and my baby. But because I caught it early, I was able to have my baby 2-3 days before I entered that stage.”
Yasmiin hadn’t expected to have problems with blood pressure. Thirty-three years old and healthy, she was considered low-risk. When she was prescribed Babyscripts’ maternal health monitoring to keep track of her blood pressure, she didn’t fully appreciate it at first.
“I thought it would be good for my sanity and for my reassurance, but of course assumed my blood pressure was going to be okay...and it was for quite a while. Then, somewhere in the 30-something week of my pregnancy, I got a high reading. The Babyscripts team called within a couple minutes and asked me to retake my blood pressure, and I ended up being totally fine.”
While that reading was not cause for a medical intervention, the event brought home to her how reassuring it was to have someone at the other end, monitoring her vitals and confirming that everything was okay. It also prepared her when her trigger later on in pregnancy did require a medical intervention. For mothers like Yasmiin pregnant during a pandemic, that reassurance is more important than ever.
“During the pandemic we’re all so isolated — we’re not able to take classes in person, we’re not able to communicate and be exposed to other pregnant women and go through the journey together. Babyscripts is really helpful because it gives reassurance that professionals are keeping an eye on you and making sure that all your vitals are normal.”
Working from home and having less in-person appointments with her provider, Yasmiin still felt supported with the Babyscripts app and remote monitoring.
“I could keep my medical provider up to date on different things happening with my body through the app and BP monitoring, and so even though I didn’t have many face-to-face interactions or appointments, I still felt very taken care of.”
What to expect when you’re expecting during a pandemic is a step beyond the normal, and Yasmiin was grateful to have clinical guidance as readily available as an app on her phone.
“Because it was my first pregnancy, I found everything quite helpful. I like the fact that I was able to have this one space to see everything, like my weight gain. I really appreciated all the information — what to take to the hospital, info about cord blood — I read and made so many notes. The app also kept my husband and me up to date on all the things that we needed to do, and anything we needed to be alerted on.”
Her final thoughts on Babyscripts?
“I am oh-so appreciative to the team and creators of Babyscripts, and I recommend any pregnant woman to use the Babyscripts app. For me it was absolutely life-changing; I felt like it really did save my life in a sense, and also most importantly the health of my baby.”
*The names in this story have been changed to preserve the privacy of the individual.
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